Being Best Friends
by FuryPossessed
Summary: I'd been telling the story of how Ivan and I got together for years. Everyone then asked why it wasn't Dimitri with how close are now and were back then. I usually just said something like 'he's more like a brother' or 'because he's not Ivan'. I guess now it's finally time to set the damn record straight. So, without further adieu, this is mine and Dimka's story.
1. Prologue

**It's been a while since I've done a VA fic, but I'm totally excited about the film coming out in February and this idea, which actually has nothing to do with the first book, hasn't left me alone so here it is. This is just the prologue, but I'm putting the first chapter up straight away and the next one in the next few days. Here's hoping you like it :D **

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I'd been telling the story of how Ivan and I got together for years. Everyone asked for that story and then asked why it wasn't Dimitri with how close we are now and were back then. I usually just said something like 'he's more like a brother' or 'because he's not Ivan'. I guess now it's finally time to set the damn record straight. I'm fed up of the question and just want someone to understand.

I first met Dimka when I started St. Basil's Academy. It's in the middle of nowhere in Russia that cold until spring and summer country. It's where I met Ivan too, but this time I'm going to skip over the things that happened between us. Or even all the things that happened in mine and Dimitri's friendship. Friendships blossom and there are arguments and reconciliations and all that. You know how friendships work. You have friends, right? You know what happens day to day in friendships, so I'm not going to bore you with those after a while. Not even really at the start.

Along the way of course there are going to be other characters – friends and family members – who pop up. Whenever they do pop up, it's important. No story like mine and Dimka's can be told without other people.

Our friends say it's been me, Dimka and Ivan all the way, and then me and Dimka after that, but the other people in my life are important too. It's just that after a while I won't really need to talk about them to explain how Dimka and I are just best friends.

But Ivan will hardly be in it. Even if only for tonight, I need to tell a story without my husband being the focus. No doubt he'll crop up eventually, I can't resist all the time, but this…

This is mine and Dimka's story.


	2. Chapter 1

I kind of resented the alchemists right now. They'd reassigned Mum, again, which wasn't normally much of a problem for an alchemist, only they didn't exactly know I existed. Mum was one of the unusual people in her organisation in that she wasn't afraid of vampires or their half breeds. It kind of would have been a problem if she was I supposed. She'd had a brief, but intense and romantic affair with a dhampir (hence the problem she would have had if she was afraid of them) and then I entered the picture. Dad was all for helping to look after me in the time Mum was pregnant, but that was before he was badly hurt on the job. It had left mental scars too and so he'd taken the decision to not help look after me. Apparently it had killed him to do it, but he didn't want to jeopardise my safety in case he flipped out one day.

So I was the only dhampir – not on record – to have an alchemist mother. The alchemist office people didn't know I existed for obvious reasons. Mum didn't want to get sent to a re-education centre and I liked to travel so I went with Mum albeit very discretely. Now that I was old enough to travel by myself I went a few days after or before her so that we couldn't be linked together. Normally I didn't mind all her moving about, but I really liked it in Tibet. The Himalayas and Everest were the view from my dorm window and we lived on the foothills of a mountain – 7000ft above sea level. I attended Asia's largest academy and was well on my way to becoming a Guardian even though I moved around every couple of years.

This time I was going to St. Basil's. It was in the wilderness of Siberia. Mum was being sent to St. Petersburg. I'd wanted to go with her and go to the academy that was near there, but she said it was too dangerous. I countered that with I'd be behind wards all the time, but she'd countered that with St. Basil's being the best academy in the world, challenged only by St. Vladimir's. I'd been to St. Vladimir's and knew that if St. Basil's was better then it had to be truly exceptional. I supposed it was fortunate that my Russian was nearly fluent.

So I'd left Mum in St. Petersburg and was getting a lift over to St. Basil's with a dhampir called Nona who was about twenty five, eight years older than me. She was tall and looked more like a ballet dancer than a guardian, but she had a few molnija's on her neck so I knew she was deadly.

"You do realise," she said in Russian because she didn't speak a word of English, "that we're going to go over the one of the most dangerous roads in the world."

"Dangerous how?" I asked.

"Strigoi."

My stomach sank. Thugs I could easily mange, but a strigoi was something completely different. "Ok," I nodded. "We'll be able to handle anything. Want me to drive for a while so we can carry on through the night?"

She shook her head. "I've arranged us a place to stay." She still looked uneasy.

"Let me guess, we'll have to keep an eye out there too?"

She nodded.

"I'll get some sleep now and then I'll stay up all night." I slouched in my chair and put my knees up on the dash.

"You don't have to," she replied.

"Nona, I'd like to get to school alive, not in a body bag. I'll stay up all night and sleep in the day. It'll get me on the right schedule anyway."

"Fair enough," she muttered. "There's a gun and spare stake in the glove box."

"Right," I said closing my eyes. I wasn't worried about having to open the glove box in an emergency because until now I'd been slamming it closed every five seconds. Besides it was day time. Strigoi weren't about yet.

The place we stayed was apparently a village, but it was just a few houses at the side of the road and the residents honestly looked amazed to see a car. We were invited into a house of a young couple who gave us a hearty dinner and then we were allowed to mill about as we wished. Nona went straight to sleep and I hung around down in the lounge watching TV wondering what was wrong with the reception.

I wondered all night.

By the time morning came I was glad. The lady who lived here got us some food to eat on the go and then we were off. The sun was only just rising but that was good because it meant we'd reach St. Basil's before night fall. As soon as I'd eaten all of my food I curled up in the chair of the car and slept.

Nona shook me awake when the car stopped, which meant that we were at my new home. St. Basil's Academy. All of my luggage – a huge suitcase that had clothes and books and things in it, a couple of rucksacks filled with other things and a boom-box were sat on the floor waiting for me.

"I leave you here," Nona said with a smile. "You need to go to the headmaster's office. That building over there," she pointed to a huge building to our left.

"Ok, thanks for the ride."

"No problem," she nodded and then got back into the car.

I watched her go for a moment and then I gathered all my stuff up, stacking the boom-box on top of the wheelie suitcase I headed for what I assumed was the administrative building. I'd been to no fewer than eight academies in my life, moving every two years, but none of them were anything compared to this. Most were modern replicas of the old Gothic designs, but this was old. Really old. And huge. This place dwarfed all the other academies I'd ever been to without even trying.

When I got to the doors I had to shoulder one of them open and I was glad I had the extra weight of all my stuff to help me with it. Even though it was only wood it was heavy, but not stiff and it didn't creak.

Inside, the corridors were huge and the ceilings were really high and everything echoed. There was a reception though so at least something was the same as the other schools I'd been to. The woman sat behind it wore a nice black and green get up and had auburn hair to off set it and a nice smile.

"Hey," I said automatically in Russian. "I'm Jasmine Cloud, I'm just starting today."

"_Da_," the woman nodded and pulled a file out of a pile she had. "You'll need to see the headmaster who's in that office over there." She pointed to a door directly behind me. "This is a map of the school, a proposed time table and a copy of the school rules, code of conduct and dress code. Welcome to St. Basil's."

"Thanks," I smiled. "Can I leave my stuff here?"

"Sure."

"Cheers."

I turned and walked the about twenty feet across the corridor, looking at my time table the whole time. It had been thoughtfully printed in English which made me smile, and everything looked fine. I knocked on the door. Only it wasn't hard and wooden as I expected, but soft and warm. I took my nose out of the file and looked up. I'd just knocked on some really tall guy's chest.

"Oh! Sorry!" I said in English through surprise. Then I translated. "I'm a bit distracted."

He smiled and I think my heart nearly stopped. Damn this guy was hot if a little tall. He had brown hair and eyes and looks of a god. "Don't worry about it," he said in English and then side stepped me to walk out of the door way.

"Ah, you must be Miss Cloud," a voice said from within. "Come in."

I looked into the huge office and saw the headmaster. He was about forty five with greying hair and grey eyes, wore a grey suit with a white shirt, purple tie and purple pocket handkerchief. He gestured me to a chair and then sat down too.

"My name's Mr. Orlov," he said in greeting. "I hear you move around a lot."

"Yeah. Mum does and she doesn't like the thought of me being on another continent," I shrugged. "I like the travelling too."

"Will you be with us for long?" he asked.

"We normally stay for about two years, so yeah, I'll graduate from here," I nodded.

"Excellent," he smiled and leaned on his desk. "Well, you have your time table there, any problems with it?"

"No, sir, it all looks fine to me."

"Good." The phone started to ring. He looked at the called ID and groaned. "I'd take you to your dorm myself, but this can't wait, though I wish it would. Do you think you'll manage?"

"Yeah," I said and stood up. "Thank you, sir."

He picked the phone up but didn't put it to his ear straight away. "If you need anything or have any questions you know where to find me."

I nodded in thanks and walked out letting him get to his phone call. When I was outside and had closed the door I looked back to the file and pulled the map out. My dorm room was marked in red and the number was written at the bottom of the page. The buildings looked easy enough to tell apart, but on the inside the layout was more like a medieval castle than a straight forward building which was much the same as all the other academies. They all had twists and turns making me think a pop up model of the buildings would be more useful than a 2D map. Still I had a good sense of direction and was never afraid to ask for help finding places.

All the buildings were pretty spread out which made them easier to tell apart and the dorm block was in the middle. There was a huge entrance of double doors that could be locked up with iron gates and gargoyles looked down at me, trying to scare me but not doing a very good job of it. I headed in, once again thankful of the extra weight I was carrying in helping me open the doors.

Once again there was a reception and the receptionist immediately jumped up to help me. Her name was Elena, and she'd been working here for thirty years and I was to go to her if I needed any help with anything. She took me up three flights of stairs before coming to a corridor that was for my year of novice girls. I was room number 375. Third floor room seventy five.

"There are seventy five girls in this year alone?" I asked.

"More than that," Elena smiled. "I suppose you're used to being one of the only girls? Well, around here all the girls do guardian classes but most don't become guardians. We'd rather use our skills to defend our families. Baia's probably one of the safest places around."

"I can imagine," I said impressed. Even though I thought everyone should become guardians this sounded like a good alternative. Even if the girls didn't go on to have a charge to protect they were still deadly and could defend the places they lived from Strigoi if they had to.

"How many girls are there?" I asked.

"Oh, about two hundred a year, same as the guys. You'll be sharing with Inna Drozodov, no relation to the royal family."

We got to the room and it already had my name on a silver plaque, written in Russian under Inna's. Elena unlocked it and gave me a key as she pushed the door open. I'd gotten a good one, or maybe everything in these buildings was just larger than I was used to. One side of the room was bare, my side, and I had a chest of drawers and a wardrobe of my own as well as a desk. The other side was furnished the same, but it was filled with personal items – hair dryer, make-up, a couple of jumpers and a coat lazily thrown onto the bed, photos and books. Inna also had her own duvet cover which had a picture of a Russian TV show on it where as my bedding was a plain off white and boring as hell.

"Thanks. It's huge compared to all the other's I've been in," I said looking at the bed which looked about a foot wider than a standard single.

"Good. Well everyone's still at breakfast so if you're ready for classes I can walk you over."

"Sure," I nodded and quickly picked up a couple of extra hair ties out of a pocket of one of my rucksacks just in case I needed them and then followed her back out of the dorm area memorising the root as I went.

The commons were also huge, big enough for what was now a whole senior and junior campus. As such the tables were spread out, some in rectangles and others in squares. This place was luxury! The breakfast line was dwindling down, but Elena didn't take me there straight away but walked over to a small group of guys and girls made up of both moroi and dhampirs. One of the dhampirs was the guy who'd I'd used as a door.

"Inna," Elena said to a tall blonde who had blue eyes. "Your roommate, Jasmine."

"Hi!" Inna said in English and jumped up to shake my hand.

Elena smiled and then walked away.

"Well, you've already met Dimitri," Inna said by way of introduction. "This is Karolina, Dimitri's older sister, Ivan Zeklos," a moroi, "and Levin Karenin." another Moroi.

"Hey, I'm Jasmine," I waved and sat on a spare seat.

"We got you some breakfast," Dimitri said pushing some buttered black bread towards me.

Despite all my moving around I was still apprehensive about eating new foods. I was pretty sure the bread was nice enough, but it was black which made me think it was burned all the way though even though it looked doughy enough. "Thanks," I said and ignored my apprehension and took a bite of a slice. "Um, this is good!" it was kind of sweet and chewy and yummy.

"So, you're in Dimka's class," Karolina said. I wondered both how she knew and who Dimka was. "Think you'll be able to beat him up?"

"Uh, Dimka?" I asked.

"Me," Dimitri said.

I frowned. "That sounds nothing like Dimitri."

They all laughed.

"I bet," Ivan said, "that England here will be able to take you down… after a week of getting slammed around."

"Three days," Levin said.

Karolina narrowed her eyes and didn't say anything. Inna just said, "You obviously haven't seen her record. Five sparring matches and then she has him."

I really wanted to know how they knew all of this stuff about me. I mean, I hadn't even seen my record and it was _mine_!

"Oooooh!" Ivan crowed. "You have that much faith in her?"

"Yep," Inna said and then took another bite out of her slice of bread.

"Ok, we have to raise the stakes."

"Ok, who said anything about stakes?" I asked.

"I did," he pompously said. "I'm almost a Lord you know."

"Right. I won't remember that," I smiled. Everyone else laughed.

Ivan looked gobsmacked and brushed some over long sable hair behind his ear. "Ok then, I bet you can't take him down this week. If you do I'll do your maths homework for a week. If you lose you do mine."

"I'm not doing your homework," I said. "I'll bet slices of bread."

"Alright," he nodded. "For every day you don't beat him you owe me two slices of bread."

"And if I take him down today?"

"I'll give you fourteen."

"Ok. Sounds fair."

We shook on it.

"Now hang on!" Dimitri said slightly aghast. "You're taking bets on me getting beaten up? Don't I get a say in this?"

"No," Ivan grinned.

Dimitri glared.

"Save your energy for class, Dimka," Karolina chuckled. "You might need it." She then got up with Levin and they went over to another group of people.

I tucked into more of the bread.

"So, Jasmine, I hear you move around a lot. Where you been?" Inna asked.

"England, obviously, America, Italy, Spain, Japan, New Zealand, Greenland and Tibet." I reeled off in order. "Tibet was nice. We were in the middle of the Himalayas and Everest dominated my dorm window."

"Wow," Ivan breathed. "I so want to climb it."

"No, you really don't," I seriously replied. "You haven't seen the storms the mountain throws at you. Or the blood covered tents that get blown down." I nearly whispered the last bit.

The tent in question had been plastered on my window one morning and the unrecognisable body had been found about a mile away. Yeah, we'd been close to that monster of a mountain and had been able to make out teams arriving and leaving with the help of binoculars. We'd been able to count how many arrived and how many didn't leave.

"Hey, are you alright?" Inna asked.

"Oh, yeah. That wasn't the best day in the world," I scrubbed my face with my hands. "Anyway, what are classes like over here?"

With that safe topic we wrapped up breakfast and then I went with Dimitri over to the novice's classes, Inna had hers in the afternoon but had academics this morning. Actually, Dimitri and I had all our classes together which was a relief. At least I'd know someone and not have to introduce myself to everyone.

"How about," I said on the way there. "You let me win on the sixth sparring match and then we split the bread."

"You afraid you're going to lose?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No. Not really," I shrugged.

"But…"

"But wouldn't you like to pay Ivan back for betting against you?"

He laughed. "So did you!"

"Well, yeah, all in the process of making a friend though so my deception really doesn't count."

"Is this English logic?"

"Nah. Their logic is boring. It's Jasmine logic."

He seemed to think about it for a moment. "I'm thinking I'd like to see what you're really made of."

"Ok, fine." I shrugged. Then I grinned. I didn't know how good he was, true, but there was always some fun had in making him sweat it. "You're so going to regret this."

His face actually dropped a little for the smallest of moments but then he flashed me a grin. "I suppose we'll see, shall we?" then he hit me in the face.

Or, rather, he tried to hit me in the face. Fortunately for me I was quick in dropping to the floor and taking his knees out. Before he had a chance to recover I was on him and had my hands over his heart.

"Dead," I grinned. "Now, I do believe Ivan owes me fourteen slices of –"

"What is going on here?" a tight voice slowly asked.

I got up and turned to face the person who happened to be an instructor. "Nothing, sir. Dimitri was just making sure I can handle the class."

Dimitri got up too and stood behind me. "It was something we agreed on, sir."

The teacher looked between us trying to spot the lies we were telling. "Don't waste class time next time. Belikov, you should know better."

"Yes sir," he said and gently pushed me inside.

We set up for sparring without even needing to be told to and as soon as our stretches were over we began sparring with each other, I started off with Dimitri and stayed there for about twenty minutes. We were perfectly evenly matched and every blow I gave him was immediately given back and vice versa so that it was always down to the last point which neither of us ever wanted to give away. I soon felt the eyes of our instructor fall upon us. Dimitri seemed to realise too and kept the relentless pace of the fight up.

I matched his each and every move. Every punch was blocked, every kick deflected. Then I managed to turn to attack. I started off with a series of kicks which so far he'd struggled to defend, but it seemed he was a quick learner as he didn't do too badly this time, I changed to punching and then kicking, but again we were matched. We went on like that for ages, but then – there! I saw it, my chance to take him down. I took it.

But he scrambled out of the way. Damn.

I stumbled towards him, momentum carrying me forward, and knew that my head was going to hit his knee. It was going to hurt. A lot.

But he moved back. That surprised me even more and I fell flat on my face. He rolled me over to land the 'killing blow' completely forgetting for a moment that we were only sparring. I went along with him and managed to get my feet on his chest before he could bend all the way over and with all my might I kicked him upwards. He looked completely stunned for a moment. I was too. I hadn't expected it to work. Once again momentum carried me forward and I managed to stand up at the same time as him and we flew at each other once again.

Another series of blocked attacks from both of us. Then he had it. The opening that would finally end this. I moved to defend it, but he didn't take it. He went for the side which had a moment ago been perfectly defended and it was too late to go back to defending it. For half a moment I thought that there was no way he was going to be able to get the blow in, I was just out of reach.

But he was tall.

Tall enough to land the blow which sent me sprawling to the floor winded.

I lay there gasping for air for a moment, pretty sure Dimitri was doing the same at the other end of the sparring mat. He recovered first, mostly because he wasn't having to remember how to breathe and came to kneel over me.

"You ok?" he asked.

"I think I hate you," I groaned between gasps for breath.

He pulled me up and then sat next to me. The instructor guy, Sharapovic, stood in front of us grinning. "That, was awesome," he said. "You were both moving well, good anticipation, good deception too."

"Thanks," we both grinned.

"Dimitri – good work against those kicks. Remember what you learned for next time. Jasmine – your reaction times are incredible! Just remember the height of your opponent. If you hadn't forgotten that Dimitri is so tall you could have won it. Normally it takes people longer to get used to his style, so you did really well. Keep it up. You might even take top spot in the class if you carry on like that." He turned back to the rest of the class.

"Oh it is so on," Dimitri murmured.

"Change over!" Sir called.

"I guess it'll have to wait," I said, kind of glad that it would have to. I was shattered and wanted a break even if my 'break' was fighting some other tall guy who looked even more muscled than Dimitri.

This new guy smiled down at me and held a hand out. I grabbed it and let him pull me up. "Stiva," he said to introduce himself.

"Jasmine. I... Give me a minute?" I asked and forced a couple more breaths in.

"As many as you need. You sure showed Dimitri a lesson."

I shrugged. "Just didn't want to lose that's all. Ready – ow!" I brushed some hair away from my eye and it hurt a lot more than it should have. "He hit me in the face!"

"Yep."

"_Damn_. Ready?"

"Yeah. Let's see if you can do that twice."

I took a defensive position and let him attack.

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**I hope you like it! Please let me know in a review! I love reviews. **

**Not all the chapters are going to be this long, I'm not actually sure if there is going to be another one this long because of the structure and skippign time and stuff, but I really hope you like it. Please, please review! **

**Vampire Academy belongs to Richelle Mead. **


	3. Chapter 2

**Thanks for reading the story so far! I love it when that stats bar goes up :D I hope you like this chapter. **

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I more or less fell into bed when classes were over. To hell with dinner, I could hardly move and I wanted to sleep. But someone knocked on my door.

"Yeah?" I called and forced myself to sit up.

"It's me. Inna," she said coming in. "I wasn't sure if you were changing."

I flopped back down on the bed. "I'm not doing anything."

"Dimitri kill you?" she laughed.

"Near enough. Sir said we were awesome though," I managed a smile.

"Well, Tatiana's coming over for dinner so you'd better get ready."

"The queen?" I asked incredulously. I knew that I wasn't going to get spotted or even noticed by her, but did she really have to pick the day I had a black eye? "Do I have to go?"

Inna just chuckled and got ready. I sluggishly got dressed into a skirt and blouse combo which I paired with flat shoes because, honestly, I kind of thought I was a bit concussed, thank you, Dimitri. And Stiva. He'd knocked me down pretty hard too. Sure it was an accident, but still. It hurt. I managed to conceal the worst of the bruise with make-up and put on an energised, excited face even though all I wanted was to face plant the bed.

Inna showed me a different way to the canteen and… wow, it had been transformed. The tables had been moved to face into the room and were covered with red clothes and bouquets of red flowers. A red carpet ran down the middle of the room and guardians lined the walls. Dimitri, Stiva and a bunch of other people from class waved us over to the table they were sat at. I gladly sat down. A little too gladly.

"Are you alright?" Dimitri asked.

"Tired." I had to stop myself rubbing my head.

Just then the main doors opened again and we all had to stand up to pay our respects to the moroi council. They all passed right by us dhampirs but took their time talking to the moroi. I hid a bitter glare. Didn't they understand what we gave up for them?

Then the queen came in. We all knelt to the floor as expected and after a moment rose. I wobbled on the way up, but Dimitri saw and caught me before I fell. Stiva looked over in concern as well and stood a little closer too.

"Is there a Miss Jasmine Cloud here?" the queen asked in her imperious voice.

Oh hell. People around me softly gasped. Obediently I stepped forward.

"Jasmine?" Inna asked looking at me warily. I must have looked bad.

"I'll be fine," I murmured and walked forward to the front of the room and onto the red carpet.

The queen walked towards me perhaps impatient with my slow, careful pace. I kept the tiredness off my face.

"Your mother is Ms. Stanton is she not? The notable alchemist?" she asked.

"Yes, Your Majesty," I replied trying not to sway.

"Yesterday she helped avert a great disaster in St. Petersburg. I was unfortunate to miss her, I hope you will be able to send this letter onto her," she held out an envelope.

"Of course, Your Majesty."

Then she softened and reached a hand out to brush some hair away from my face and revealed the shape of the bruise that was there. "You should be resting, Miss Cloud. What happened to you?"

"Just training. That one I think was from Dimitri Belikov."

She arched an eyebrow. " 'That one'?"

"We train hard. It's rarer to leave unscathed than like this. It's nothing I can't handle."

"Still, perhaps Mr. Belikov can escort you back to your seat before you fall."

I heard Dimitri hurry over.

"I suggest you go easy on her tomorrow, Mr. Belikov. Though she looks able to hold her own I think treating her carefully for the next few days is called for."

"Of course, Your Majesty. I will ensure she rests this evening."

Tatiana nodded with a soft smile. "You all do remarkable work both learning how to guard and in doing so. Though it is not often expressed we are all very thankful for what you do… I think you will both be great guardians when you graduate. I look forward to seeing it."

"Thank you, Your Majesty," we both said.

Tatiana walked off and Dimitri walked me back to the table. I more or less collapsed into the chair and I was pretty sure I heard one of the guardians quietly call for a doctor.

"Why didn't you go to the doctor?" Inna asked looking worried.

"I was fine earlier," I grumbled. "Just listen to her. I'm not going anywhere."

She reluctantly stood up and watched what was going on. Dimitri and Stiva kept an eye on me which was annoying, but kind of comforting. No one else I knew apart from Mum had ever looked out for me like this and I'd not even been here a day yet. A waiter came over and poured some water into a glass and pressed it into my hands. I gladly drank it and instantly felt a little better. The more I drank the clearer my head got, but I still felt heavy and tired. Definitely concussed.

When the doc finally arrived the queen had finished speaking to people and I was being looked at by Dimitri and Stiva too. A light was being shone in my eyes and _that_ hurt.

"Concussion," the doc said.

"I know," I mumbled in English. The guy looked a bit lost.

Dimitri didn't. "You knew!" he exclaimed. "Why didn't you say something?" he kind of looked like he wanted to shake me.

"She knew?" Ivan asked incredulously. I wondered when he arrived.

"Not right away. Too much adrenalin," I mumbled trying to keep my eyes open. "Got worse later."

"Can you walk?" doc asked.

I just looked at him. I could hardly stay awake.

"Carry her," he ordered.

Stiva and Dimitri both jumped to it, both knowing they'd given my head a good whack today. In the end Stiva gave up and let Dimitri carry me saying that he'd open the doors. I quickly fell asleep.

I woke up to see light skies and the lights were off. Then I remembered that I'd been carried out of the canteen in full view of the whole council and the queen. What a way to make an impression. I groaned.

"Jasmine," someone softly said.

I looked round. One of the queen's guardians.

"Did I do something particularly special?"

He chuckled and passed me some water. I gratefully drank. "You passed out in front of the queen. Don't you think she'd be worried?"

"I made it back to the chair didn't I?" I said perhaps a little defensively.

"No. Mr. Belikov barely made it to your side."

So I'd hallucinated it all. The nice speech about her caring about us and appreciating our work. It was all a figment of my imagination. And I'd fainted in front of all those people. I was not going to hear the end of this. Ever.

"No. She did say all that."

I hadn't realised I'd said anything aloud.

"To you when she was trying to keep you from fading in and out."

"She really does care then," I said in wonder.

"Yes. I know she seems cold and doesn't talk to us guys when she visits places, but that's how it's done and she has to keep up appearances."

"She's queen she can do whatever the hell she likes."

"And lose favour with half the council which will set her even further back in trying to help us," he leaned forward in his chair. "She really did mean everything that she said and she stayed to help you because she wanted to. She really does care. She just has to play cold and indifferent most of the time."

"Then what's with the letter to Mum?"

"The incident your mother averted was in direct link to her safety. You know the role alchemists play. They're valued. But she can't openly thank them."

"Yeah. I guess. Stupid system."

"She's working to change it. Trust her."

The doc came back in then and looked relieved that I was alright and awake. He looked at the monitors he'd hooked me up to and adjusted the drip and then shone the light in my eyes again. He made some notes on the clipboard he was holding and then hummed.

"When can I get out of here, doc?" I asked making sure to speak in Russian. It was more of an effort than normal.

"Tomorrow if you keep improving. No novice classes though."

"What?" I almost squeaked. "They're the best!"

"You won't be well enough," the guardian said. "Trust me." He pushed me back down to the bed.

Even though I wanted to protest I let him and then I stayed there. I was tired already.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"Tired. Obviously. I'm fine."

The guardian tried not to smirk. "I will tell the queen. She will be relieved to hear it."

"Thanks for staying with me," I said. "And can you please thank her for her concern."

"I will. I'm glad you're feeling a little better."

"Thanks, Guardian…"

"Edwards."

"Thanks, Guardian Edwards."

"No problem, kid," he smiled and then walked out.

Later on in the day Dimitri and Stiva came to see me with Inna. The guys looked guilty as hell which was kind of cute but annoying. I rolled my eyes and sat up a little straighter.

"Hey," I smiled. "Alright?"

"We're fine, Jasmine," Inna smiled back glad to see that I was doing ok. "How are you?"

"Uh… A little tired I guess. I feel like I have a hang over."

She laughed but the guys stayed looking at the floor. I rolled my eyes again.

"I heard I'm real good at fainting."

"I'm sorry," Dimitri said. "I shouldn't have got carried away like that."

"Me either," Stiva said. They were both talking about class.

"Hey, it's not your fault I'm so awesome I made you forget we were only sparring," I chucked a grin in even though doing so kind of hurt. I had a bruised lip too. "And I should have come here as soon as class was over if not sooner. It's totally my fault."

Stiva looked a little confused. "I'm not the best at English."

Dimitri quickly translated and then they were asked to leave.

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**Hope you liked it, please leave a review, comments are welcome! **

**Richelle Mead owns Vampire Academy. **


	4. Chapter 3

**Hi there! A huge thank you to Kira Drozdov for the follow - you're the first so this chapter is dedicated to you. Hope you like it :D**

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I was let out next day after classes finished. I'd been unconscious for the trip here so I had no idea where to go and the doc was too busy plastering someone's arm to give me directions so I had to make my own way over to the commons. I ended up walking around for an hour through twisted corridors, secret passageways and empty hallways before I got to the headmaster's office scaring the life out of the receptionist because I appeared from the trap door under her desk.

Once she'd recovered herself she said, "Lost, huh?"

"Yep," I grinned. "It's kind of fun though. How do I get to the commons?"

She pointed me in the right direction and then I left going a bit more quickly than before because it was nearly dinner time and I was starving. When I got close the smell of food called out to me and carried me forwards. There was barely a queue and yum, it smelled good. I hurried over to get some food – black bread, what looked like soup and chips. They also gave me something called _borsht_ and some caviar. I sat down at a table and ignored the borsht and caviar and focused on what looked like normal food.

About ten minutes later Inna and a girl from my theory class sat opposite me. If I remember rightly her name was Anna or something.

"Anya," she corrected. "How's the head?"

"Hurts," I shrugged.

"It's all anyone has been talking about for the past two days," Inna said with a roll of her eyes.

I groaned.

"Well, you did faint at the queen's feet. What's an do alchemist anyways?" Anya asked.

It still surprised me that people didn't know this sometimes. "They help keep us a secret from humans and do cover ups and stuff after attacks," I shrugged. "They'll tell you more at court once we all graduate."

"But aren't..." she lowered her voice and leaned in a bit, "aren't they _humans_?"

"And my dad's a dhampir," I said with a shrug and put some more soup on my spoon. Only it didn't taste like soup when I put it in my mouth. I spat it out and gagged. "Ugh! _Yuck_!"

They laughed as I downed the majority of my drink.

"I'll eat it if you don't want it," Anya said and took it off my plate.

Dimitri and Ivan joined us then and asked what all the commotion was about. They sat on either side of me as Inna told them. She also explained about alchemists.

"Huh," Ivan said. "I always wondered how they got rid of strigoi bodies."

Dimitri looked thoughtful and didn't say anything. I wondered what was on his mind.

"Hey guys!" a new voice called. It was from another Moroi, an Ozera by the colour of her eyes and she had dark hair which reached her waist. She wore shades of blue and was pretty even for a Moroi. "Oh, hey, I'm Tasha Ozera," she said to me with a welcoming smile.

"Jasmine Cloud," I replied as she sat down.

"How was the wedding then?" Inna excitedly asked.

"Oh it was amazing, and Christian looked so cute in his suit though he was grumpy because of it which only made him look cuter still. And Moira's dress… She looked like an angel. I don't know what took him so long to propose," she sighed and shook her head. "They're moving to America permanently now and are thinking about having another baby."

Dimitri leaned over to me and in a low voice explained, "Lucas, the groom, is her brother, Christian's their son. He's about nine. They've been flicking between here and America since they got together."

I nodded as it all began to make a little more sense.

Tasha wrapped up her story and turned to me. "Anyway I heard that you fainted in front of the queen."

"Uh. Yeah," I groaned. As I'd walked in people had whispered about it. "Embarrassing."

"I don't know," Dimitri lightly commented, "You fell pretty gracefully."

"Oh, well, thanks. I'll use that to distract a strigoi some day," I scoffed and had some more soup this time making sure it was soup and not caviar and then sighed, "I'm not allowed in training for a week."

"You need to recover, Jasmine," Dimitri said.

"I know. But it's so boring! I mean what am I going to do the rest of the time? Double theory?"

That's exactly what I did for a week. I had morning theory classes with Dimitri and then joined Inna and Ivan doing their arty subjects and Russian and maths and English and in the afternoon I did those same classes with Dimitri, Stiva and Tasha. I quickly went bored out of my mind but I turned boredom into focus and got loads of work done as a result.

Still I was glad when Monday rolled around and I was allowed to go back to training. We had weights and conditioning first which passed in a breeze and then it was onto combat technique. Everyone went back to what they'd been doing last week, but I was paired with Sir for the first twenty minutes to quickly catch up the new moves that I'd missed. As always I picked them up pretty quickly.

"Good," he said and called Dimitri over who was working in a three. "Go to practicing those. Just, Dimitri, don't concuss her again," he joked and roughly patted my shoulder and quickly walked off to see how everyone else was doing.

"I'll go easy to start off with," Dimitri said.

"Sure." I nodded because I was starting to get a headache already and I didn't want to end up back in the hospital again.

I hadn't expected him to go as easy on me as he was though. After a couple of minutes of boredom I stepped it up a gear and he did too with a slight smile. Still we kept it slower than the other week but it was filled with as many difficult moves and intense concentration.

By the end of the lesson I was knackered. It was a good job it was only theory work for the rest of the day.

Not that the quiet of our that first theory lesson lasted all long. We were on the way out of class when Tasha dashed up to us and grinned. "Did you hear?" she asked really loudly and far too excitedly. I cringed at the volume.

"Hear what?" Dimitri asked.

"About next week." She was pretty much bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"It starts with Monday and ends with Sunday?" I dryly asked.

"No, spoil-sport. There's a pool tournament!"

"I thought it would have at least been a school dance," I muttered. I mean who got excited over pool anyway? It was just hitting balls with a stick.

"You entering, Dimka?" she asked overly loudly again. "There's a doubles game as well, we could do it together! I mean, if _you_ want."

"Sure."

"Great!" she squealed. Then she realised how much noise she was making and quietened down a lot with a blush. "I guess I'll see you next week then."

He laughed. "We have classes together before then."

"Oh, right. Yeah. Sure. See you later," she stammered going redder by the second and then rushed off.

"She totally fancies you," I said.

"No she doesn't."

" _'There's a doubles game as well, we could do it together. I mean, if _you_ want'_." I quoted and batted my lashes at him. "She's totally hot for you."

"No she's not!" he replied looking slightly panicked.

"Hey, you're good for each other. I mean, she's ridiculously tall too. And you'd have really cute kids."

"Jasmine!" he yelped. "I… That is… She –"

"Luuuuuuuuuuurves you. She waaaaaaants you," I sang and began walking to dinner.

He hurried after me not looking overly impressed and a little stressed. I laughed.

"God, Dimitri, anyone would think the end of the world is coming."

He didn't reply but walked a little faster. I hurried to keep up with his long stride wondering what exactly was wrong. Tasha was great. She was lively, caring, funny, everything a guy like Dimitri could want. He got his food in silence and sat down in silence. Because he'd been walking so fast we were the first into dinner.

He sharply turned to me. "What do you think?"

"You're overreacting?" I asked because I wasn't sure what exactly I was supposed to be thinking about.

"About Tasha. Should I still play with her?"

"Sure. I mean, it won't be a date but you'll still be spending time with her and you'll be able to decide if you like her back?"

"And if I don't?" he asked. "I don't want to hurt her feelings."

"Just say you're not ready for a relationship or something. Fall back on focusing on guardian stuff."

He nodded thoughtfully and then smiled a little. "Thanks."

"No problem. Oh, here she is now."

He groaned a little but put a good face on.

"Hi, Dimitri," she breathed.

"Hi, Tasha," he replied. Then he saw Inna walking over. "Hi, Inna."

I very nearly slapped myself in the head. He was being an _idiot_.

"Oh, hey, Dimka. Hi, guys," she said to Tasha and me. "Ivan's got detention again for refusing to do some art work. He'll squirm out of it and be along in a minute no doubt."

Dimitri sighed. "I told him not to pick art."

"So did I," she sympathised and sat down. "Hear about the tournament?"

"Yeah. Dimka and I are doing doubles," Tasha piped up with a smile.

"O-kay then," Inna replied a little taken aback. "You playing, Jasmine?"

"I suck at pool."

"How can you suck at pool?" Dimitri and Tasha asked at the same time in loud voices.

"Ow! Guys!" I groaned and put a hand to my head. "Quieten down a bit."

"Hey, Dimitri!" Ivan called from a few tables away. "Hear about the tournament?"

I just groaned louder and rested my head on the table. He clattered his tray down next to me and scraped his chair on the floor.

"It'll be awesome. We'll clear everyone –"

"Ivan!" I snapped.

"I'm only telling the truth!" he loudly defended. "It's not like –"

"For the love of god, man, _shut up_!" I all but groaned.

"What did I do?" he asked in a normal voice.

"She's concussed still, Ivan, and just had a full day at school," Dimitri softly said and rubbed my back. "Need anything?"

"Silence," I muttered. "Sleep. To not have a headache."

I made it the rest of the way through dinner and stumbled through my homework before going to bed. Inna had sat with me in our room and put her work away too.

"What was with Tasha earlier?" she asked.

"Oh she fancies Dimitri," I shrugged with a yawn and crawled into bed. "And then Dimitri asked me of all people for advice."

"Yeah? Well, you're, like, the most intelligent out of all of us. You don't even have to try in class to get A's," she replied as if it were obvious why he asked me.

"Yeah, but I've only just met the guy really, and, don't people normally ask close friends about that kind of thing?"

"Jazz, you spend pretty much every waking moment together either in class or hanging out. Of course he values your opinion already. The only time you're not together is when we're in bed."

"Huh. I guess."

"You sound really surprised," she frowned.

I yawned again. "Mum and I move round every two years. I don't normally let myself get really close to people because I know I won't see them again. Here though… I'll graduate from here. I'd like to have some real good friends before we're chucked out there to guard people."

"You'll always have us, Jazz."

"I know. I guess it's just a bit strange that's all. Anyway, I'm going to go sleep."

"Ok. Set the alarm clock?"

"Uh… no. Haven't."

"Ok. I'll get it. Night."

"Night."

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**I hope you liked this chapter, please leave a review! **

**Richelle Mead owns VA**


	5. Chapter 4

**Yessss! I have enough internet to get this out! I feel triumphant! Thanks KiraDrozdov and guest peggy (I really hope that's right, I can't find the review email now) for the reviews! peggy (if that's your name): your question will be answered in this chapter :D **

**I hope you like this chapter, please leave a review/comment/criticism when you're done! Oh, about a week or so has passed since the last chapter. **

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"Hey, Jazz," Ivan said. He appeared on the other side of the book case nearly scaring me out of my skin.

"Hey," I murmured back as we were in the library.

"Hey. I wondered if you wanted to enter the pool tournament with me? The doubles one?"

"I suck at pool," I absently replied as I looked at the contents of the book I pulled off the shelf. Nothing about the artist I was looking for in there either.

"Well I could, like, tutor you for the rest of this week and see how you do if you like."

"Uh… I can't really. Oblonsky set this massive project which is going to take up pretty much all my spare time this week."

"Well, couldn't you… you know… not do it?"

I laughed. "I've been pared with Dimka. It's his grade too."

"He doesn't even like art!"

"And all our grades get seen by Moroi when we graduate and determine if they ask us to guard them or not. We have to get good grades."

"But you're not even a senior yet!"

"So. It all still counts, Ivan. I'm sorry."

"Ok. Fine. Go study with _Dimka_ then," he snapped and stormed away in a cloud of fury.

Bewildered I stared at the space he'd been occupying for a moment and then made my way back to the table where Dimitri and I had spread out a bunch of books and samples of art work.

"Find it?" he asked.

"Err… No."

He looked up, sighed and asked, "What did you do?" in a suffering voice.

"Nothing!" I defended. "Ivan got all upset when I told him I wouldn't do the tournament with him and then he stormed off when I told him I have to pass this instead of learning to play pool with him."

He just shook his head and got to work.

"What?" I asked.

"Nothing."

_"Dimitri Belikov what do you know?"_

"That I sent you over there so that he could ask you out," he stopped drawing and looked up. "I told him you don't like pool but his 'logic' as he calls it was to mention it and then offer to tutor you so that he could spend more time with you."

"But… Why? Why would he want to ask me out?"

"Because he 'luuuuurves you'. He 'waaaaants you'," he quoted dryly.

"Ugh. I so don't need this right now. I don't even want a boyfriend and… Ah, crap."

"What?"

I slapped myself in the head. "It was jealousy. I called you Dimka without even thinking about it. He thinks I fancy you."

"You don't do you?" he quickly asked.

"What? No! No offence."

"Good," he sighed. "No offence."

Inna just laughed when I told her that night. I waited her out. I wasn't at all getting what was so funny and glared at her.

"You're so oblivious. He's done nothing but drool over you since you arrived!" She was still chuckling.

"Has not!"

"Has too!" she laughed. "Just see how it goes. I'm going for a shower."

I didn't reply but stared at the ceiling. Dimitri had given me the same advice when I'd asked him what I should do. I supposed there was nothing else I could do and really would just have to see how he was tomorrow. Maybe I should talk to him, tell him what I wasn't ready for a relationship yet. I sighed and rolled over onto my stomach and rested my head on my arms. Why were guys so complicated and so… well, guyish?

It's not like I'd even realised he was trying to ask me out and surely he should have seen that! Why didn't he just ask me out? It would have saved all this from happening. At least Dimitri hadn't hurt Tasha's feelings when he accidentally set up their date. Why couldn't I have had it that easy?

At least it was the end of term in a few weeks. I'd be able to get away from all the guy drama for the summer and relax with Mum in St. Petersburg. I couldn't wait to see it. I knew it would be nothing like what I've seen before and I always loved seeing new places. I'd grown up doing it.

I fell asleep dreaming about the places I'd seen and woke up to hear Inna talking to someone at the door. I sat up and she closed it.

"Post man," she smiled. "One for you. It's kind of thick."

"It's from Mum." I smiled. She always let me settle in for a couple of weeks before sending a letter. It allowed her time to get her bearings too and to take a bunch of photos for me to look at.

"There's another one for you too," she said and passed them both over.

I looked at the address on the second one and didn't recognise the handwriting. I shrugged and put it on the desk. Before I tore the one from Mum open I got dressed and got the rest of my school things together. Then, with Inna leading me, I opened Mum's letter as we walked to breakfast.

_Dearest Jasmine, _

_ I hope this letter finds you well. How's St. Basil's? I know it's huge and really old, older than any of the schools you've previously been to I'm told by my fellow alchemists. Write back and tell me everything about it. And, please make some strong friends whilst you're there. You'll need them after you graduate. Oh, I got the letter from Queen Tatiana, she also slipped in a note telling me about you fainting in front of her at the posh dinner. I got a phone call from the school too telling me what happened. Just go straight there next time, hum? _

_Anyway, I'm working with a team of five other alchemists (it's really hard not mentioning you, you know) as we cover outside of the city too. It's nice to have a team for once. We all live in the same row of houses and regularly meet up for dinners at each other's houses. I've included a picture of all of us and put everyone's names on the back. _

_As usual I've included pictures of the city. I hope you like them. _

_St. Petersburg is more dangerous than I anticipated – already I've been run off my feet every night and parts of the day too. I barely spend three hours at home when I'm not asleep. _

_Jasmine, I don't want you to come here for the summer. It's simply too dangerous for you and I'm hardly at home. It's no place for you. I wish I could let you stay with me, but I can't. I'm sorry. I won't put you in danger like that. All the other places we've been to have been silent compared to this and I won't subject you to have to deal with it all. You're young and need to live your life, especially now that you have life long friends. I'm especially not letting you here after that stunt you pulled. _

_I've thought about this long and hard and it's the only thing I can allow myself to do. I'm sorry, Jasmine. I'm doing it because I love you. _

_I have, however, talked to your father. He's had his last counselling session and has been declared fully healed and ready to go back to work if he wants. He's not going back until after summer and he said that he wants you to stay with him for the holiday. He's looking forward to meeting you and will write to you. _

_I think you should stay with him, Jasmine. I know you've always wanted to know him and this is your opportunity. He's a fiercely dedicated man and I know that not guarding Moroi has been a torment to him over the last sixteen years. He's taking the time off to see you because he wants to know you. You didn't see him straight after the attack. I know why he stayed out of our lives and in some ways I am grateful that he did. I hate that you grew up without a father until now, but it was for the best. He was dangerous when he lapsed and I couldn't do anything to help him. _

_He is a wonderful man though. It was by chance that I saw him the other day. He lives in a town called Baia which is close to your school. He's still very much the same as he was then, but he has changed a little. He doesn't laugh as readily anymore, but he is still one of the most wonderful men I know._

_The first thing he said to me was, "How is my daughter?" He's always cared for you; that's why he told me to leave and take you with me. It killed him inside to do it, but he did it for you. He didn't want you to grow up with a possibly abusive father who you were afraid of. Please read his letter and reply to it. He wants to know you._

_Remember though that this is completely your choice. You don't have to stay with him if you don't want. You don't even have to write if you don't want. Think about it, Jasmine, and do what's best for you. _

_I hope you're well and have since taught that Belikov boy a lesson! _

_All my love,_

_Mum. _

I stopped in my tracks and stared at the letter. The other letter which had arrived… it was… it was from my _dad_. For a moment I couldn't breathe or even really see anything apart from the shaky handwriting on the front of the envelope. I was kind of aware of someone talking to me, but it didn't register. Nor did the hand on my back which slowly guided me across the room and pulled me down to sit on the floor.

My dad had written to me. After years of being ill he was finally alright and he wanted to meet me and to have me over for the summer. He really wanted to know me. He actually wanted to know me. I couldn't believe it. He'd _written_.

"Ow!" I yelped and rubbed my arm.

Dimitri was looking down at me even though he was sat on the floor too. "I've been trying to get your attention for the past minute."

"So you _punched_ me?"

He shrugged. "It worked. What's up?"

"Nothing," I smiled. "Mum wrote and said that Dad's all better and wants to meet me and he's written."

He smiled, "That's great but we should really get to work."

"Yeah," I sighed and folded Mum's letter away and put my bag to the side.

The lesson passed painfully slowly as I did the weights and run on the treadmill. All I wanted to do was dash up to my room and open Dad's letter and read it. I wanted to know what he had to say and what he wanted to tell me. I wanted to write back and tell him I wanted to stay at his house for the summer. I wanted to ask a thousand questions.

I got even more impatient in combat class and didn't work as well as a result and then theory dragged and bored me to death and I kept fidgeting and tapping my toe and clicking my pen and looking at the clock. Dimitri kept telling me to sit still since I was wobbling the desk we were at, but I couldn't help it. I was excited, ridiculously excited, and wanted lunch to come so that I could dash up to my room and open the letter.

I sighed and then drummed the table top. Dimitri glared at me and covered my hand with his.

"Put a guardian face on or something, Jazz. I'm trying to work," he whispered.

"Sorry," I whispered back and got to work. I was surprised to find that I hadn't even finished the first question.

Just as I finished it the bell went and we were immediately dismissed. I jumped up and dashed out of class not stopping to appologise to the people I crashed into and headed up to my room.

And there it was sitting where I'd tossed it onto my desk. I picked it up and ripped it open.

_Dear Jasmine, _

_ I hope you're ok. I guess you're not expecting this but I'm Nikolai. Your dad. I'm sorry I've been absent your whole life but it was a necessary hardship. Mum tells me that you understand so I won't repeat the details to you here, though if you do ever want to ask questions about it I will answer them as best as I can. _

_I've been given a clean bill of health by my doctor. I'd like you to stay with me for the summer. I'm close by in a town called Baia. I hope you'll like it if you decide to stay. Take your time to think about it if you need to. I don't mind waiting since you've had to wait for me your entire life. _

_I have so many questions to ask you I hardly know where to start. Tell me a little about yourself and how school's going. I really do hope you're ok there. I went there when I was a boy and remember it to be a great place to be. There should be a pool tournament coming up soon am I right? And Guardian Petrov, is he there still? He has to be at least sixty eight by now. Tell me all about it. I'd like to hear what you've been up to. _

_I could ramble on like that for ages so I'll leave it there – no doubt you're busy with homework or friends or something. _

_All my love,_

_Dad. _

_p.s. I live next door to the Belikov family. Olena has a son your age called Dimitri, perhaps you know him. _

I almost squealed with excitement and jumped up again to find Dimitri. He was probably still in the commons eating lunch so it shouldn't be too hard to find him. I dashed down there with a massive grin on my face and a bounce in my step. I crashed into him on his way out of the canteen.

"Dimka!" I exclaimed. "You know him! My dad! He lives next door to you! Nikolai!" I hugged him round the neck and laughed before letting to go barrage him with questions. "What's he like? Is he alright? How well do you know him?"

"Slow down," he chuckled and led me over to a bench. "He's fine," he told me. "I only really got to know him the past couple of years when he started helping me with English homework in the holidays once he was well enough. You'll like him a lot."

"He was given the all clear," I smiled. "And I get to see him and stay with him all summer and get to know him." I started to cry. I wiped the tears away. "I finally get to know him. I finally get to have a dad. I'm sorry. I guess you wish you know how your dad is and all and here I am –"

"Oh I know who my father is," he darkly growled. "The last time I saw him I broke his nose for hitting my mum."

I gasped, "Oh, I'm sorry, Dimka."

"Don't be it has nothing to do with you."

I nodded and began laughing and crying all over again. "Sorry."

"Hey, don't be," he soothed and hugged me. "It's alright to be happy."

I sat up and wiped my tears away. "Thanks, Dim – Oh… not good." I said looking over his shoulder.

Dimitri looked over it and saw Ivan shooting us daggers. "We should probably talk to him."

"Yeah, we should," I sighed and stood up at the same time as he did.

Seeing that he'd been caught Ivan walked towards and then passed us. "Wouldn't want to interrupt," he muttered.

I caught his arm. "We're not together," I told him. "Just friends."

"Then what's with the hug and calling him Dimka?"

"He hugged me you idiot because I was crying and everyone calls him Dimka."

"So you're not really together?" he asked looking back and forth between us completely bewildered.

"No," we said at the same time.

He slapped himself in the head as he rightly should have. "Wow I feel like an idiot."

"And since when is that different to normal?" Dimitri asked.

"Oh, whatever, Belikov. Jazz is the intelligent one now," he quipped back.

"Right, well, I'm going to class," Dimitri said and then put his hand in his bag and pulled out a sandwich and a packet of crisps. "I got you some food."

"Thanks," I smiled and took it from him.

Ivan and I watched him walk off for a moment before having the inevitable discussion.

"So, Jazz about –"

"Ivan," I gently interrupted. "Dimitri told me about his plan when you left the library and it's really flattering and everything but I'm honestly not looking for any kind of relationship right now."

He looked the floor looking kind of glum. "Ok. I understand."

"Hey, if there was a dance I'd go with you as a friend."

"Yeah?" he asked with a smile.

"Yeah. I've never been around for the dances at all the school's I've been to. I always left like a week before they were held and I'd need someone to look ridiculous with when trying to dance," I joked.

"I can dance just fine."

"Really?" I asked.

"Well… Ok, so I can't dance, but no one knows that," he shrugged.

I laughed and then looked at my watch. "Get to class?"

"Sure," he nodded and began walking with me. "What were you upset about?"

"Oh, I wasn't upset. I got a letter from my dad. I was a bit overwhelmed."

"You've never heard from him before?"

"No. He's Dimitri's neighbour, Nikolai. You know him?"

"Ah, the English tutor Dimitri raves about. I know a little of what happened. I'm sorry you suffered too."

I smiled. "It's ok. I'm staying with him for the summer. Mum say's it too dangerous in St. Petersburg."

"Well that's great. I mean not seeing your mum sucks, but at least you get to meet your dad."

"Yeah," I sighed with a smile. "I finally get to know him."

He put his arm around my shoulder. "He'll adore you, Jazz. He'd have to be a fool if he didn't."

Even though that was overstepping the lines of friendship a little I thanked him for the compliment and carried on walking to class. He'd get used to the idea soon and, honestly, if I were looking for a relationship he'd be a good guy to date.

We came to my classroom just then and the last couple of people were still filing in and I slipped in with them. It was advanced English and finally people had stopped picking on me seeing as I was learning as much about the language as they were. Sure I knew how to speak and write it, but I had no idea what sub-coordinating conjunctions and stative verbs were. I picked it up quicker than most though as it was my native language.

"Afternoon class," our teacher a Miss Stanwell from England smiled at us. "Today we're looking at the tenses. Who can tell me how many there are?"

"Three," someone in the back row called out. "Past, present and future."

"Wrong," Miss said. "There isn't even such a thing as the future tense."

"What?" I asked. "You know, the more I learn about English the less and less it makes sense."

People all around the room agreed which only made Miss smile more.

"Ok, copy these down, one to a page and then I'm going to pass some worksheets around and we'll work through it all together. How's that?" she picked up a chalk and began writing on the board.

_Present simple._

_Present continuous. _

_Past simple._

_Past continuous._

_Past perfect. _

_Past perfect continuous._

_Present perfect._

_Present perfect continuous. _

I just looked at them all for a moment once they were all written on the board. Dimitri looked about as annoyed by it too and muttered something about not really needing to know all this just so long as we could all speak, read and write the bloody language. I was inclined to agree.

Then we got to work for the hour and practised writing and identifying sentences in the different tenses. Since we were all apparently so good at it we moved onto sentence types too and got confused over those for a while but with the promise of doing more of that tomorrow. I just wanted term to end so I could meet my dad.

To pass the time though I buried myself in the art project with Dimitri. We worked on it most nights from after dinner until curfew which barely left any time for our other homework, so we just stayed up later to get it all done. What we didn't manage to do we'd do over the weekend.

That night though I didn't do any homework after curfew because I wanted to write to my dad. I wasn't sure how to begin so I just went with the first thing that came to mind.

_Dear Dad, _

_ Hi. It's me. How are you? I'm glad you wrote. I'm not so sure Dimitri is though because I left your letter in my dorm room during class time and I was all impatient and jittery until lunch. So, yeah, I know the Belikovs… well him and I've met Karolina. Dimitri talks about them a lot. They sound like a nice bunch. _

_St. Basil's is fine. Great actually. I room with a girl called Inna and she's pretty great, I hang out with her all the time as well as my other friends from classes and I know a bunch of Moroi too. One of them, Ivan Zeklos, actually tried to ask me out and I didn't realise and hurt his feelings. He'd alright with it now after Dimitri and I explained that _we_ weren't together. _

_Anyway, onto safer topics… Yeah the pool tournament is next week. I'll probably go and watch (I can't play the game to save my life) since Dimitri is playing doubles with a friend called Tasha Ozera and I think Ivan's playing the singles game. _

_I've already been badly concussed in training, but getting hurt is nothing new. It was my first day and I was pared with Dimitri since he was the only person in my class that I knew at the time. He's so good at every guardian class we do. Not to brag or anything but I've always been the best in class no matter which school I go to, but he's just as good, if not better! It's nice to finally have some competition. Trouble is we sometimes forget we're only supposed to be sparring and that's how he punched me in the head. Filled with adrenalin I didn't realise just how hard he hit me and went onto fight Stiva (another friend) and he threw me around a little too. Still didn't go to the hospital but carried on through all my classes and then collapsed in front of Queen Tatiana when she asked to talk to me when she arrived and I've not heard the end of it since! It's kind of embarrassing. _

_I'm ok now though. I had a week of no novice classes apart from theory. _

_Anyway you asked to hear something about me. Well… My favourite colour is red… maybe blue, I like to play all kinds of sports especially basket ball, I'm allergic to celery of all things and I don't like clowns. I have nutty ginger hair, pale skin and I'm pretty tall. People think I'm a Moroi sometimes. I have green eyes. I don't wear long socks or legwarmers. I like comedy films and TV._

_I want to graduate as a guardian. I know most women here stay at home and use their skills to defend their families, but I want to be a guardian. It's all I've ever wanted to do. _

_I'm actually just off too bed so I'm going to leave off here. You forgot to put your address on the letter so I'm going to give this to Dimitri to send to his mum to give to you. _

_Love you,_

_Jasmine. _

I curled up in bed and instantly fell asleep. I'd be glad when this art project was handed in.

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**VA belongs to Richelle Mead. **

**Who else is as excited about the film as I am? o.O **


	6. Chapter 5

**Hi, new chapter! Wooo! I hope you like it!**

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Next morning I awoke really early and decided that I'd get some more homework done with the two hours I had before we were allowed out of our rooms. It was all for maths and was pretty simple stuff and I got it done pretty quickly. Then the alarm went off and I left to get a decent breakfast and grab a yoghurt for Inna since the ones she liked were usually gone when she got there.

I met Stiva on the way and he congratulated me on hearing from Dad. I grinned like a muppet and made sure I had the letter to give to Dimitri.

"How's the head?" he asked.

"Fine more or less." I shrugged. "I'm not sure my reputation is."

"I think that built it there," he laughed. "The one who fainted in front of the queen," he crowed.

"Oh, well, thanks. I'll remember to throw up on her shoes next time."

"I'd rather you didn't," an imperious voice intoned just as we rounded the corner.

I jumped out of my skin and very nearly screamed. Stiva did yell in surprise but we both sunk to one knee at the same time.

"Rise," the queen said. "You are recovered I trust?" she asked.

"Yes. Thank you, Your Majesty."

"Good," she nodded and then walked passed.

When she was out of sight I giggled and Stiva joined in.

"What is she doing back here?"

"You didn't hear?" he asked. "She's been in Baia and is here to get her plane ride back to Moscow and then onto court."

"Oh. Right."

We headed into the canteen and were the first in so we got all the best food that was on offer. I had a fried breakfast, some bread and then Stiva put a local delicacy on my plate which didn't look all that appetising.

"An alternative to borsht," he said.

I had to figure out what he was saying for a moment, surprised that my Russian was holding up this well, but then understood. In Russian I said, "I'm not so sure I'm going to like it."

He laughed. "You can 'snog' it all you like, but you're supposed to eat it," he said 'snog' in English.

I laughed at my mistake and we sat at a table near a window which looked out to a rising sun and lightly falling snow. I groaned.

"What?" Stiva asked.

"I just went through one winter. In the Himalayas," I sat back in my chair and sighed. It was a good job I had all my winter clothes still.

"You do realise that's just snow blowing off the roof," he deadpanned.

"Really?" I asked. Wow I felt stupid.

He patted my hand and then laughed. I wasn't seeing what was so funny until I looked out the window and saw a reflection of someone pretending to feint.

"Oh for the love of…" I swore inventively in a few languages, stood up and marched over there.

The people making fun of me were speaking in fast, fluent Russian and they weren't saying anything nice. The beautiful thing was they were royal moroi who had been snubbed by every single council member who had walked through the hall. Well, if that wasn't leverage I had no idea what was.

The royals were a couple of girls in my art class, but they weren't much to deal with – they'd probably scream about rumpled clothes as soon as I touched them. The taller of the two had Ivashkov eyes and the other looked a lot like Ivan even though she didn't have Zeklos eyes. They were both wearing skirts and knee high boots, expensive jumpers and had the same hair styles too. How boring.

I grabbed both of their collars, bad form for wearing fancy tie/bow things and brought them down to my level. They both looked startled but then turned icy and calculating.

"Touch me again _dhampir_ and I'll tell –"

"Mummy?" I asked. "Daddy?" I laughed. "Neither of them are here now, but the queen is. I suppose you could try and tell her but she'll probably ignore you like she did the other night. Mummy and Daddy must have angered her in some way."

"At least we know who both our parents are," the taller one sneered.

"So do I. But what are yours doing? My mum helps Dhampirs and that means dealing with Strigoi. My dad is out there protecting moroi and killing strigoi. _Not running away from them_." Ok, so that last part was a lie, but they didn't need to know that. Besides he would be back out there one day soon.

They both looked flabbergasted for a moment but then the shorter one said, "At least the queen didn't have to ask my name to know who I am."

I smiled back and it was none too kind. "At least she wanted to talk to me."

"About your Mum."

"And she ignored you _because_ of yours. I know where I'd rather be." I let them go with a little shove and walked off as if nothing had happened.

Inna was staring at me amongst a crowd of other people in our year. There were a couple of guardians watching too and they looked like they were more content to watch than do anything about what had just happened. One of them was smirking, the others had stubborn masks on which wouldn't allow them to smile.

"I got you a yoghurt Inna," I said and walked over to the table.

"You do realise that the taller one is one of the queen's nieces," she said as she followed me.

"And you couldn't have told me that?" I asked. "That would have made it even worse for her."

She grabbed my arm and pulled me to a stop. "Jasmine, you don't want to make an enemy of her. You'll make an enemy of the queen too."

I shrugged. "I'll answer to the guardian council if I do something wrong. She has no jurisdiction and little weight there." I sat down and ate whatever Stiva had put on my plate. It was actually really nice.

Inna opened her yoghurt and began to laugh. I laughed too and then Dimitri and Ivan joined us.

"What's funny?" Ivan asked.

"I'm sure you'll hear about it," Stiva said in English and roughly patted my back a couple of times. "She's remade her signature."

"Reputation," I corrected.

"It's the pool tournaments tonight, guys!" Tasha exclaimed as she rushed over to the table.

She slammed her try down slopping her drink everywhere and rattled her knife and fork. Dimitri began to mop the juice up but Tasha slapped his hand away. Then she did something amazing. She used her fire magic to super heat the juice so that it evaporated, but left the wooden table unmarked. I'd never seen anything like it. The only time I'd ever seen someone use fire magic it was to light a bunch of candles when there was a power cut. This was so much more difficult and needed a lot more skill.

"Where did you learn that?" I asked.

"Mum showed me before she died," she shrugged. "She always used to make Baked Alaska like that."

"Beats putting it in the oven huh?" I chuckled.

My eyes strayed over to Dimitri who was still looking at her in awe. I wasn't sure I saw love in the depths of his eyes, but he looked at her in another light. One that was filled with a new appreciation. It wasn't worshipful, but it could lead somewhere if he let it.

His eyes caught mine and he looked down with a tinge of red in his cheeks. I didn't say anything. Not until we were on our way to class anyway.

"So, you looking forward to that pool tournament?" I asked with a knowing smile.

He rolled his eyes.

"You're the one who blushed, not me," I dutifully informed him.

"What she did… It was… If more moroi used magic like that…"

"I know," I nodded. "It would help us out a lot. Maybe she should start a protest or something."

He shook his head. "She wasn't thinking like that."

"Maybe you could make her think like that."

He frowned. "Why me?"

"Because she luuuuurves you, she waaaants you!" I sang and skipped ahead to class before he could shove me into a wall.

I ended up running straight into none other than the queen.

"Shit!" I swore in old Tibetan as Dimitri caught me. I wondered where her guardians were. "Not again." I sank to the floor on one knee. "Sorry, Your Majesty."

"Don't worry about it –" she said and then said something else, but this wasn't right.

None of this was right. I could understand her being concerned about me when I feinted in front of her and then telling me not to throw up on her shoes and then sweeping passed, but telling me that it was alright that I crashed into her… No. That was wrong. I looked at her expensively clad feet and the shoes began to look hazy and then they were size nine boots. I looked up and she changed into a strigoi who was wearing a silver bracelet over a thick jumper sleeve. I made a lunge for it and managed to rip it off.

I was picked up by the hair which hurt a lot more than it looked in the films. What he, a moroi from my art class, forgot was that I was holding a silver bracelet. I slammed it into his face and he howled in pain and dropped me. Dimitri grabbed my arm and pulled me up.

"You should have run!" I snarled at him, fear making me so angry I could hardly see.

My foot was jerked from under me and my chin smashed into the floor. I cried out in pain at the same time as I kicked my attacker in the face.

"Get help!" I yelled at Dimitri.

"I won't leave you!" he yelled and went flying down the corridor as he was kicked in the stomach.

I forced pain aside and jumped on top of the strigoi. I remembered someone calling him Kotya. "Go!" I snapped at Dimitri and snapped Kotya's neck which stunned him for a few moments. "You know this corridor only leads to the commons. Go!"

Dimitri looked at me for another moment and then ran down the corridor.

Kotya woke up and his neck snapped back into place. I slammed the bracelet into his face, over his eyes and he howled in pain again. I'd just snapped the bracelet into a jagged point which I rammed it into his heart. He went slack. He wasn't dead, but I knew he would stay down for a moment. I took the advantage I had and ran.

I passed a couple of guardians and didn't stop running until I was round the corner and had slammed into Dimitri. He effortlessly caught me and held me against his chest.

"We have to find the queen," I babbled. "We have to make sure she's –"

"She left an hour ago," he said in English correctly guessing my head wasn't up to translating. It was hardly up to coherent thought.

A moment later another guardian came over and ordered us to the hospital. I clung onto Dimitri and let him lead me there. I was shaking from shock, my chin felt like it was broken and I kept spitting out blood. I really just wanted to lie down and sleep, but I had to walk to the hospital or my already fragile reputation would be ruined.

Wow that sounded an awful lot like what a royal would say. I began to giggle but I forced myself to stop. Hysterics weren't good. Not good at all.

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**Oooh, action! I love a bit of action! Please leave a review, I love those too.**

**Thank you so much for the reviews/favourites/follows I've already received! I think I've sent a message to all the FF members who have reviewed/fav'ed/followed, but if I haven't thank you so, so much. The support is awesome! peggy: thanks for the review, I'm glad you liked the chapter! **

**VA is the wonderful creation of Richelle Mead. **


	7. Chapter 6

**Sorry I didn't update yesterday - broken internet is to blame. Anyway here's a new chapter, just a sort one, but I think it's sweet . **

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I woke up a few hours later in the hospital. I was in pyjamas and had a jaw that didn't want to work properly.

"Jazz?" Ivan asked.

I sat up and groaned because my head was throbbing too.

"She put wires in your jaw. You're going to be on shakes for a while. It was completely shattered."

I flopped back on the bed. A pen and paper was put on my stomach I scribbled a note. He laughed.

"You're stuck here and you're asking about pool?" he laughed and shook his head. "Dimitri and Tasha won."

I wrote another note.

"Me? I stayed right here."

I would have smiled if I could. I closed my eyes and fell asleep again.

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**I know it's really short, but I promise the next chapter is going to be longer. It can hardly be shorter, right?! I hope you liked it anyway! Please leave a review! **

**VA belongs to Richelle Mead**


	8. Chapter 7

I walked over to the buses glad of the natural light I was in. I'd seen nothing but hospital lights and sterile walls for the past two days. I smiled even though it still hurt a bit and waved when I saw Dimitri, Stiva and Innaputting their luggage in the hold. I hurried over to them and put my luggage with theirs.

"How's the jaw?" Inna asked.

"Meh," I mumbled because I still couldn't move it properly.

Stiva and Inna smiled but Dimitri looked really grim and still troubled by what had happened. By leaving me.

"Ivan went home yesterday in the family jet," he said.

I nodded.

"Tasha too."

I nodded again. Then we got onto the bus. Dimitri and I sat together. I let an hour pass before I took out my pen and paper and wrote him a note.

_You did the right thing. _

I passed it to him and he read it. Then he wrote one back.

**You wouldn't have been as hurt if I stayed. **

_Dude, this happened while you were with me. I'm fine. _

**I still should never have left you. You should have gone. I could have taken him. **

_We're evenly matched, Dimka. Why should it have been you? _

"Because I'm going to be a guardian one day."

_Me too, _I wrote. _I don't care what women do here. I'm going to be a guardian, I'll see worse than that. _

He looked away. I didn't understand what else there was, what the other problem was so I let it lie. I decided to go to sleep for the rest of the journey.

Dimitri woke me up when the bus stopped. I got up with him and collected my luggage amongst a crowd of excited mums and young children running over to them. Friends left their groups to stand with their siblings and walk over to their mums together. Lost in a sea of smiling faces I stayed with Dimitri, Karolina and a six year old who joined us and was obviously their youngest sister Viktoria. I didn't know her because she was on the lower campus and I hadn't even contemplated going over there yet due to injuries.

"Did you really attack that strigoi?" she asked with wide eyes. They were brown like her brother's.

I nodded.

"Was it really scary?"

"Uh huh," I nodded.

"I wouldn't be scared. I smack him in the face like _pow_ and then kick him in the nuts and then I'd poke his eyes and –"

"You'll do no such thing Viktoria Belikova!" a woman snapped.

"Mum!" Viktoria squealed and turned around to hug her mum's legs.

I watched enviously wishing my mum were here too. Ms. Belikova hugged her other children too and then sent them to see their older sister Sonya who was waiting in the crowd, heavily pregnant. Then she turned to me and I could instantly see where Dimitri had got his looks from. And his kindness.

"Your Dad's over there," she said and looked over her shoulder at a tall, naturally built man in his mid forties.

His hair was ginger as was mine though mine was a nutty, darker ginger influenced by Mum's dark brown hair. Apparently I had inherited my curls from her too. I had my dad's green eyes and height and everything else dhampir too. He smiled when he saw me look over and walked towards me confidently, but a twitch in his hand let me know he was nervous too. It was good to know I wasn't the only one.

"Hello," he smiled and pulled me into a hug without asking.

I hugged him back a little awkwardly at first, but then enthusiastically. "Hi," I grinned and laughed.

"I wasn't sure you were coming," he said.

I pulled away, "Why?"

"You never wrote back," he frowned.

"I – Ah –" I swore managing muddle two words from different languages together both because I realised I forgot to give the letter to Dimitri and because my jaw clicked into place and it hurt like hell. I rubbed it for a moment and moved it around glad that I could finally do so. Then I explained. "I did, but then I, um, kinda fought a strigoi and, well…"

He paled. "You did what?" he asked in a whisper.

"Yeah. it's a long story –"

"Tell me," said and picked up my suitcase.

Figuring that this had something to do with parental instincts and a flashback to what happened to him I explained as best as I could whilst making sure to highlight how I was one of the best in the school and could look after myself.

"Belikov should never have left you!" he snapped. "I'll be having –"

"_Don't_." I snapped. Shocked, I controlled myself. "He already feels bad enough for leaving –"

"Good. Especially as _he's_ going to be a guardian."

"So'm I," I said firmly.

He looked down at me with sadness and surprise in his eyes. "You don't have to."

"I want to. I've always wanted to," I said soothingly and held his hand. "It's what I've been training for my whole life. Mum fights them as much as she can with her alchemist duties and giving guardians tip offs, not that they ever go after the strigoi, you fight them and I want to too. _They come first_, Dad. I've always believed that."

He sighed and cupped my cheek with his hand. "Alright. But you'd better be careful out there."

"I will. Now, where's the house?"

He smiled too and pointed to the door we were stood in front of. He passed me the key. The door opened easily and without a sound which somehow didn't surprise me at all. It opened to a small hallway with a set of stairs to the right. Through the door to the left was a lounge and off from that was a kitchen I supposed. Everything was painted a boring biscuit colour but there were landscapes on the walls to cheer them up.

"I'll show you to your room," Dad said and headed upstairs.

I followed him and on the stairs were pictures of him and mum. They looked happy in all of them whether they were on a beach, up a tower or sat at a picnic table. I looked at them with a little regret because the only picture with the three of us in was with Mum holding me when I was a newborn and Dad looking troubled and infinitely sad.

He came back down the stairs and stood behind me. "I always loved you, you know."

"Mum said that's why you left," I replied.

"Because I love both of you."

I turned to him and because he was on the step lower than mine we were the same height. "Do you still love her?" I asked.

He didn't look away but he did at the same time. His eyes stayed locked with mine but they seemed to see inward too. "I don't know," he sighed. "They said I'm better and I'm looking forward to going back to work and I'm glad you're here, so glad… But… That picture told me why I had to keep going all these years whenever it got tough. It was always my goal to be well enough to see you…"

I put my hand on his shoulder. "Hey, it's alright. Whenever you're ready."

He smiled a little. "My doctor said that too."

"Huh. And here I thought I was training to be a badass."

"Oooh, Doc could be a badass when she wanted to be," he laughed. "Come on, you still haven't seen your room." He walked back up the stairs.

I followed him this time and we went into the room that was directly above what I assumed to be the kitchen. It was painted a couple of shades of blue, had pine wood furniture and the bed had crème coloured sheets with a blue blanket draped across the end.

"I hope it's alright," he said.

"It's great," I smiled.

"Ok, well, I'll go and get lunch then I guess."

I unpacked and then joined Dad in the kitchen where he was making himself a toastie. He asked me what I wanted and made me one too.

"We should spar sometime," he said when he passed me my food. "I'd like to see how good you are."

"Sure," I smiled. "That'd be cool, though I think the doc would have a fit if he found out."

He chuckled. "I remember what the man is like. I promise I won't even trip you over."

I smiled. "Then as soon as I've finished this I'll kick your arse."

He raised an eyebrow. "Oh really." He chuckled. "I was Queen Tatiana's guardian once."

Ok, so maybe he was a total badass, but so was Dimitri. "Well then, I might be evenly matched."

He laughed and his eyes sparkled. I felt mine sparkling too and I smiled even more. I'd only known him for twenty minutes, but he was awesome.

"Have you talked to Mum since you saw her?" I asked.

"Called her a few times. We keep different hours."

I nodded. I kept different hours to her too which made calling her difficult, especially with school going on. "Me too. She talks about you a lot."

"Yeah?" he asked.

"Yeah. Said you can be real goofy sometimes and I should watch out for you embarrassing me. Stuff like that."

He just shook his head and smiled at a memory. "She's told me a lot about you too."

I cringed. "Nothing too embarrassing I hope?"

He tapped his nose. "My secret."

"Not awesome."

He chuckled and finished his toastie. "Want a drink? I got lemonade."

"Sure."

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I limped inside after sparring. He was a _total_ badass! I'd been alright going against him for a while, but then he stepped it up a gear and… Oh My God Wow. It was like fighting a tornado. I did more dodging after that than anything else and then when I saw an opening and managed to take advantage of it I tripped over a pot plant and wacked my knee on the slabs. I'd kept fighting of course until I was properly knocked down, but I was knackered and I could hardly move my knee.

Dad grinned. "Evenly matched enough for you?"

"I would have got you if I hadn't tripped," I groused.

"I'm sure you would," he said meaning it. His eyes sobered up and he turned serious. "If you let me help you over the summer you could well surpass me before you graduate."

My jaw dropped. Surely no one could be better than him? He was… Going against him was like fighting Aris or Mars! He was far superior to anyone I'd ever fought before and much better than any instructor I'd ever had. To think that he believed I'd be better than him was ridiculous! There was no way anyone could ever beat him.

"You really could do it, Jasmine," he said.

"Really?" I asked sounding a little shocked I was sure.

"If you let me help you."

"Ok," I said feeling determination fill me. "I'm going to be the best guardian I possibly can be."

"You'll be the _best_ guardian," he said with a smile and cupped my cheek with his hand. "Let's get some ice for that knee. Then if you're feeling up to it we'll go running for a bit after dinner. Just a few miles."

"Ok. Whatever you say," I said solemnly. "Until then?"

"I've got some cheesy comedy?"

"Popcorn?"

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**VA belongs in its sacred entirety to Richelle Mead**


	9. Chapter 8

I didn't manage the run that night so we watched some TV and ended up talking through it then I went to bed early.

Only to be woken up just as early the next morning by Dad who said we had to run three miles before breakfast. I didn't groan as I perhaps normally would have done because this was training. It was going to keep me and my charge alive one day. I put some running gear on and got downstairs before Dad. He then set the pace and briefly told me the rout in case he left me behind. I told him it wouldn't happen. We ran in the dewy, pre-dawn light just as it turned to a beautiful sunrise. I took a moment to look at it when a gap came between the houses and then focused on the path again. The golden red light was more breath taking than the running so I decided to step it up a notch since we'd done most of the circuit.

Dad effortlessly kept up with me making me want to go faster, but I kept the urge at bay. I had to get home yet and do whatever else he wanted me to. And I had a bad knee.

As I'd thought I wasn't allowed to eat or drink when we got in but was ushered out to the back garden where he instantly tried to kick me. I defended the blow and attacked back. We sparred for about ten minutes and then Dad called it time out.

"Good," he smiled. "Picked a few of my moves up already I see."

I shrugged. "I'm a quick learner."

"Good. Come on, breakfast."

We had blueberry pancakes with strawberries, grapes, raspberries, banana and cream. To drink I had orange juice and Dad had lemon tea to help with metabolism apparently. Then I had some toast with honey. After that it was onto him showing me some of his awesome moves which we did until lunch (salad and an omelette) and then I was instructed to begin my summer assignments.

I had plenty of work for Guardian Theory and a couple of other small bits, but it was nothing I was going to struggle with. I spread my theory text book and notes out on the kitchen table and began to work drawing diagrams and answering questions. I got five hours work in and that meant I had most of the work done. After that it was another healthy meal this time jacket potatoes with mince in a really nice sauce with some borsht on the side.

As soon as I was done he ushered me back into the garden to do a bit more training. We only worked for half an hour and then we went for another three mile run.

"Ten tomorrow morning," he said when we got back.

He looked like he'd barely worked up a sweat, but I wasn't used to running so far in one go and was feeling a little put out. The only reason I'd managed the run was because I was already very physically fit thinks to combat training and the conditioning I'd been doing for the last few years at school.

"Really?" I asked panting.

"We'll only do five in the afternoon."

I groaned. He laughed.

"Joking. Three is fine."

"Ha," I muttered and then gasped when my thigh cramped up.

Dad stretched and massaged it away and then sent me up for a hot shower.

When we were both suitably refreshed and had cold cokes in hand we sat in the lounge.

"So you've been training for a while, huh?" I asked.

He sighed and slouched in his seat. "It was all that kept me from hurting someone sometimes," he sighed and looked like the admission pained him. "I never gave training up. I always wished I was able to keep you instead of the training."

"I'm not bitter about it," I assured him. "I get why you left and I never hated you for it."

He didn't seem to be taking it in so I sat next to him and leaned against his side a little. He stiffened for a moment and then relaxed again letting out a breath. He put his arm around me and kissed my hair.

"I love you, Jasmine."

"Love you too," I murmured back.

"Already?" he asked surprised and held me a little tighter.

"You know when I was little…. I do want to be a guardian now, but when I was little it was only because I wanted to be just like my dad."

"Aw, kid…" he said sounding a little chocked up.

For a whole week we did nothing but wake up early and train with the occasional homework break. It was really hard work, but by the end of the week I could really see the benefits of all the work coming through. I felt more awake in the mornings, could run faster and I landed more blows when we were sparring. I felt exhilarated each day and looked forward to training perhaps a little more than it was healthy. The whole time Dad and I got closer and shared more jokes with each other.

Then Karolina came over one morning just when we were taking a break. She smiled when we saw me lying on the floor chugging in deep breaths.

"Good work out?" she asked in perfect English and with barely an accent.

"Yeah," I nodded and sat up. "S'up?"

"Mum was wondering if you both wanted to come over for dinner tonight? We're going to eat in the garden and she's cooked waaaay too much food as usual," she rolled her eyes but smiled softly.

"We'll bring drinks and desert," Dad said.

"Great, I'll let her know," she said and headed back through the house.

Dad decided that I deserved the afternoon off as well since I'd got all of my homework done. We both showered before going to the shops to get some food and drinks. On the way there I saw many people from school out and about and for the first time I felt like I was part of the community I was in. Normally when I went somewhere with Mum school was a couple of hundred miles away and the students were spread out all over the place. Here though everyone lived in Baia and walked her streets. I felt like I was part of the town, not just a visitor passing through.

In the shop we spent some time just looking around as I'd not spent any time actually in town, just passing though as I was on a training run. It was a smart little town and I was slowly coming to fall in love with it.

"Oh, can we get some of this?" I asked holding up a jar of borsht.

"I'll make it," Dad said. "It's really easy."

"Ok," I shrugged and put the jar back. "What about black bread?"

"There's a reason I don't bake. I'm sure Olena would show you how if you asked. Or Dimitri maybe?" he asked and waggled his eyebrows.

"Friends only," I said. "And don't get me started with how much trouble that got me in with Ivan."

"What happened?" he asked in the tone that said he had a fairly good idea but wanted me to tell him anyway.

I told him all about the homework disaster, him asking me to play pool with him and then how he didn't even go in the end because I was in hospital.

"He's got an attachment issue," Dad decided when I was finished.

I laughed. "It's ok to say that he fancies me, Dad."

He frowned. "No one gets to fancy you, not yet. You're too young."

"I'm seventeen!" I argued.

"Exactly." He sighed. "Sorry."

"Let me guess. I'll always be a little girl to you?" I sweetly asked.

He chuckled and slung his arm round my shoulder catching my neck in his elbow so that my face was pressed against his shoulder. "Always. Hobbit."

"I'm not short." I was five foot nine and a bit!

"Compared to Dimitri?" he asked.

"Dad, everyone's a hobbit compared to him."

We got to the till a few moments later and then went straight home.

The sun was still blazing when we went round to the Belikov home. I was in a summer dress that just about met my knees. Dad was in shorts and a nice t-shirt and we were both carrying bags of food and drink. An old lady opened the door. She was only about five foot tall and really quite thin, though maybe her lack of height exaggerated that a little.

"Evening," she said in Russian. She looked at me with her dark eyes, eyes that were much darker than Dimitri's. I felt like she was looking right into my soul and I really didn't like it but I pretended I didn't notice. She then smiled. "Come on in."

We stepped into a tidy hall way and were shown into the kitchen where Olena was stood getting the last of the food ready and Sonya, the sister I hadn't met yet, was helping her.

"Ah there you are," Olena said with a smile. "Just take the drinks outside would you? There's a table by the wall, but Viktoria's terrorising Dimitri at the moment so you might have to be – Dimitri Belikov, watch the flowers!" she chided.

"Sorry!" he called.

I took the drinks out and carefully put them on the table with the ten other drinks that were lined up. I had a feeling that this was going to turn into a feast instead of a simple garden dinner, but I didn't mind so much. I was with friends after all, one of the first really good friends I'd made was here and so was my dad.

As soon as he saw me Dimitri stopped chasing his younger sister and put his hands in his pockets.

"Come on, Dimka!" Viktoria demanded.

"After dinner, Vika, go help Mum," he said. "Mr. Petrov's here."

"Oh, alright," she sighed and headed inside. "Hello, Jasmine."

"Hi, Viktoria," I smiled. Then I walked toward Dimitri who looked like he wanted to get away from me, but was staying so that there wasn't a scene to ruin the mood. "You're not still hung up about that are you, Dimka?" I asked.

"You don't understand," he muttered.

"Only because the stigma is stupid," I nearly snapped.

He glared at me. "It's a whole way of life here! It means something to us, to me!"

"Ok. Sorry," I said truly meaning it. I should have known better than to insult his culture given the many I'd live in. He nodded once. "But that doesn't change what happened and you know, _you damn well know,_ we did the only thing we could have."

"That's not the point!" he argued.

"Then what is? I'm going to be a guardian."

"Yes, and a really good one too, but…" he ran a hand through his hair, hair which I could fancy even if I didn't fancy him, and deflated. "I should never have left you."

I softened because he was just being too kind. He wasn't angry with me for staying instead of him, he was angry with himself for not taking my place. "Yes, you should have," I firmly told him. "You did exactly what you needed to do. Do not second guess yourself." I sighed because that wasn't going to get though to him. "Look, I saw a couple of awful things when I was in Nepal, one of them was a guardian running from danger to get help, not staying there. Had I been faced with that Strigoi alone the first thing I would have done is _run_. Sometimes that's all you can do."

He frowned. "But that doesn't make any sense. We're supposed to be able to take on anything, _everything_ that comes our way"

I sighed. "It doesn't always work like that. If you're outnumbered you run and get help." He still didn't look like he understood. I sighed again. "Come on. Forget about it for now. Let's just enjoy dinner and the weather, yeah?"

"Alright," he said and relaxed, taking his hands out of his pockets.

"We good?"

"We're good," he nodded.

We walked over to the table and sat with everyone else. I was sure the table was bending in the middle because of how much food there was on it. None of the Belikovs thought a thing of it so I didn't either and piled my plate high with all the scrumptious food that was set out before me. We conversed in pockets and groups all the way through the meal and through desert and then Yeva produced a guitar and gave it to Dad.

"You play?" I asked with a frown.

He carefully took the instrument. "Years ago. Let's see…" he began to strum and do a few chords.

I listened to him play for a while and then realised that Yeva was humming a melody that went with the guitar. It sounded calm and content for a long while but then filled with strife and fear, sorrow and anger before calming down again. I listened enraptured.

"Grandma used to be in the choir," Dimitri murmured to me. "But only on festival days. She still sings sometimes. Rarely, but sometimes."

"She's really good."

He smiled. "Mum is too, but she doesn't sing in front of people she doesn't know that well. Hasn't for a long time." He sounded sad about that letting me know that there was a story there, but I didn't pry. If I'd learned anything about Dimitri Belikov it was that he was private about such things. If he wanted to tell me he would, in his own time.

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**Please leave a review! Thanks for all those who have, I respond to them all, but for peggy since she's a guest: Thanks for the review! I'm glad you liked the last chapter :D **

**VA belongs in it's entirety to Richelle Mead. I cannot wait to see it on the big screen!**


	10. Chapter 9

**Hey everyone! Ok, Dimitri and co. are back in the next chapter, I just had to set things up with Jazz's dad for later events... (yes a cliffy in an a/n I'm so cruel! Anyway, on with the chapter!**

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"She's a great kid, Carol," Dad said to Mum.

I stayed sat on the sofa listening in.

"Really well, she's going to be one of the best… I wish I was there for her. You too." He once again sounded sad about his absence, but that was something for him to deal with on his own. I'd made sure that he knew that I understood the necessity of his absence, but that was all I could do. The rest was up to him.

"Do you want me to put her on?" The pause was only a second. "Jasmine!" he called.

I sprung up from my chair and skipped to the phone with a grin. I hadn't talked to Mum for a while and I missed her more than I cared to admit. "Hi, Mum!" I excitedly sung down the phone. "You ok?"

"Oh just fine," she said back with a smile that I could hear in her voice. "You?"

"Great! Just fine!"

"Good. And how are things with you and your dad?" she asked with interest.

"He's awesome, Mum! Taught me a few of his moves and tricks and things. I'm so going to kick Dimka's arse when we go back to school."

"You sound like you're actually looking forward to it," she laughed.

"I am. I mean I'm going to miss Dad and all, but it's going to be _wicked_!"

She chuckled again. Dad was chucking too.

"Carol, we gotta go!" someone in Mum's house said. "Now!"

"Yeah!" she called and already felt my heart constrict a little. "I've got to deal with something, Jazz," she sighed. "I miss you."

"I miss you too," I sighed. "When… When will I see you again?" I tentatively asked. We used to see each other every holiday, but now that we were so far apart I wasn't so sure even _if_ we'd see each other again.

She sighed too. "I'm not sure. I won't miss your Trials though I can assure you of that."

"Carol!" someone called to her.

"I really do have to go, love. I'll call you tomorrow, ok?"

"Yeah," I said keeping strong for a moment. "Speak soon. Bye."

"Bye."

I put the phone down and sighed. In the lounge I plonked myself down next to Dad and let him put an arm around me and rest his head on mine.

"You'll see her again," Dad soothed.

"I know," I sighed. "I just miss her."

He sighed. "Me too."

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Dad and I trained for weeks after that all but uninterrupted and out in the sun every day which built up a dark tan. It bleached my hair too. It was with a week to go before the end of the holiday that Dad sighed when he put the phone down.

"Jasmine?" he asked.

"You've got to go?" I asked because it was pretty obvious.

He nodded. "Back to guarding the queen. There's a plane going from St. Basil's later today."

I smiled even though I wasn't completely feeling it. "That's great… Though…"

"James retired, it's not that bad," he said. "Olena will let you stay with her."

"Or I could go to school with you," I suggested. "I mean there's the car journey… And, well, I could train there and…"

He chuckled. "Alright. Go pack."

I grinned and rushed up stairs. I was an expert packer so it didn't take more than ten minutes to pack everything, but it really helped that I had a huge suitcase so I didn't have to fold things down really small. I lugged everything downstairs just as Dad was finishing putting his things in the car. He looked at my suitcase sceptically.

"That might have to go on the roof," he said with a frown.

"So long as it doesn't rain," I shrugged.

Predictably it did rain in huge splodges and it wasn't like it was a short shower either. It lasted for hours and hours. I was just glad that I didn't own a hairdryer because it wouldn't be doing much drying for a while anytime soon. Still I was not impressed when we had to get it off the roof. Not only was everything soaked, but it was heavier than I thought possible for a suitcase. And my shoes were in there most likely full of water.

"I have to go, the jet's here already," Dad said.

I looked up from my suitcase with sad eyes. I didn't want him to go, I wanted to keep him by my side for as long as he'd been missing from my life, but I knew I couldn't. I'd been lucky to have him for as long as I had, lucky that I'd been able to see him at all, I just didn't want to let go. But I had to. The life of a guardian was notoriously unfair and I had to get used to that. The sooner I got used to it the better. I'd already stretched my time with him by about four hours. It was time to let go, at least for a little while.

Dad walked over and pulled me into his arms. I hugged him back, fiercely.

"I'm gonna miss you," I said rather thickly.

"Me too, kid. I'm gonna call you whenever I can," he promised.

"Even if it's the middle of the night here?"

"Especially if it's the middle of the night."

"Good."

He let me go, kissed my forehead and then walked off. I stayed stood where I was for a long time just watching him with tears falling down my cheeks. I hadn't known him long, but it felt like I'd known him forever. I was going to miss him like I'd miss an arm if one was taken away from me. I was fairly sure he'd call as soon as he landed though.

With nothing else to do I dragged my suitcase and the couple of boxes I had over to the dorm block where a surprised looking receptionist Iona looked up from her desk with a frown.

"Miss Cloud? Back so soon?" she asked in English. She was Scottish but had married a man over here.

"Dad's gone back to guarding the queen," I said with a huge, proud grin.

She smirked. "I'm sure they have stories to tell each other." She frowned again. "Why is your suitcase soaked?"

"We had to tie it to the roof."

"Well, you're the only girl here, so you can leave everything to dry in the bathrooms I guess," she said with a shrug. "Want some help getting everything up there?"

"Do you mind?"

She quickly stood up. "Beats doing the hall staff rota. You know Elisabeta and Levi were together and had shifts together? Well, not anymore. They can't stand the sight of each other and don't even want to be in the same buildings, and Elisabeta has fallen out with her sister big time so won't go anywhere near her and… Everything's going to pot!"

"Are they children? Seriously?"

"That's what I asked. Oh my God, this is heavy!" she gasped as we began to pull the suitcase up the stairs. "We should get a strapping young man to help us."

I laughed. "Are you a guardian or not?"

She glanced over to me. She was only here because her son was studying here and her husband was a teacher here. If she could have been out there guarding people she would have been. But because her entire family was here she elected to help out here wherever she was needed. Most of the time she was on patrol and when students went off site she was always one of the guardians. She actually did the jobs of three people and did them brilliantly.

"I'm sorry!" I gasped when I realised what impact my words would have had.

She sighed. "No. It's ok. I still take that joke too personally."

She began pulling on the case again. I gave it a huge heave too.

It took us about half an hour to get it up the two flights of stairs, but in our defence they were really long flights of stairs.

"That should be guardian training," she panted when we dumped it in the middle of my bedroom floor.

"Agreed," I said and plonked myself on the bed. "I'm just gonna chuck this in the dryer."

"Ah someone else who says that!" she grinned. "I get so fed up of people saying 'going to' all the time. No one always says 'going to' back home!"

I smiled. "I'm just glad someone here speaks fluent English. So I'm gonna chuck these in the dryer and then go for a run."

"I'll leave you to it."

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**Please comment and review! **

**VA belongs to Richelle Mead**


	11. Chapter 10

**Sorry I didn't upload a chapter yesterday - I was out all day. But I hope you like this one :D **

**It all belongs to Richelle Mead. I really wish I owned it... Well, Dimitri ;) **

**Please leave a review. **

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After going for a run I took advantage of having the pool to myself and then it was dinner time. There were only five of us still here, I didn't know any of the others. There was only one table set out and we were allowed to choose what we wanted from a menu. I had a huge helping of pizza and salad with chips and an ice cream sundae for desert. The other four were moroi, wealthy by the look of it, only talked amongst themselves. I was happy to ignore them and left as soon as I'd eaten everything. About an hour later I went for a another run and then hit the gym to do some conditioning. At Dad's I hadn't been able to do any of that and I didn't want to go back to classes unprepared.

Getting back into it wasn't hard. After that I called it quits for the day and went to watch some TV.

And so my routine for the next week was set and it seemed like it was no time at all that everyone started arriving back. There were royals coming in by plane or helicopter in the morning of the day before classes started and they came in a steady stream all day, then there were the school busses for the rest of us.

I waited out in the car park and met everyone there. Inna looked like she'd been on a beach for the past fortnight since she was lobster red.

"Hi, Jazz!" she called and hurried over. "How was meeting your dad?"

I grinned. "It was great! He's really cool! He had to go back to court though to guard the queen, but, yeah! He's awesome!"

Stiva and Dimitri ambled over with a few other people from class and Tasha.

"Oh my god! How did you get that tan?" Tasha practically squealed at me.

"I was in the sun a lot," I said deadpan.

I helped with her stuff since she'd brought way too much with her, and we all headed inside. The new freshmen were taken aside to get given their room numbers meaning the rest of us managed to get up the stairs really easily and lugging Tasha's stuff was way easier than lugging all mine had been. As soon as everything had been dumped down we headed down to dinner.

It was already quite crowded when we got in there, but no one was sat at our table so all was good with the world. We chatted as we queued up for food and then laughed all the way to the table when Stiva told us a story about chucking his mum in the swimming pool.

At the table I ended up wedged between Dimitri and Stiva who were both big guys and Stiva was a little elbowsie with his knife and fork and they were both much taller than me. Tasha laughed and took a photo with her camera. It was a new Polaroid one and the picture printed there and then.

"That's sooooo cool!" Inna said.

"I didn't know they were out yet!" Stiva exclaimed. "How much are they?"

Tasha shrugged. "Birthday present."

She took the picture in hand and wafted it around a little. Slowly the picture revealed itself. She gave it to me. For a moment I didn't realise how stupid I looked as I looked at it because with all the travelling I'd been doing between schools the last I'd heard this was a dream invention that was only just being considered. Now I had a Polaroid picture in my hand. I quickly composed myself.

Then Stiva began to laugh. "You look tiny!"

"I always look tiny," I told him. I was tall but it was stupid how thin I was for a dhampir. "Small but deadly."

"You started without me?" Ivan asked from behind us.

We all turned round and greeted him.

"Fashionably late as always," Tasha admonished.

He sat down next to her, opposite me, and looked grave. "I saw a Robert take a two strigoi down."

"Robert's one of his dad's guardians," Stiva murmured to me.

"What happened?" Inna asked in a worried voice.

He shook his head. "We were getting on the plane… They just popped out of nowhere. Killed Denis before we even knew they were there and…" he shook his head again and looked up from his food. "Dad rushed us onto the plane. Sat us down. The pilot turned the engines on and we were ready to go. I thought Dad meant to leave him behind for a moment. Mum was in hysterics and Anna was crying… I – I saw Robert stake both the strigoi." He took a breath in. "Mum wanted us, me and Anna out of there. We're not allowed to go back for Denis's funeral or anything." He tipped his head to the side. "I think he would have wanted us to just go on as normal though."

"He died doing his duty, Ivan," Dimitri said.

He nodded. "I know. It's just going to be so strange to… Anyway, what have you guys been doing all summer? Someone looks like she caught the sun," he said looking at me.

"Training with Dad," I said and explained what kind of things we'd been doing, though not going into too much detail. I knew that most of it would sound like a foreign language to him and Tasha and I didn't want to give my secrets away to the others.

We were about finished our meals when the headmaster walked in and stood on a small dais that had been set up while we were eating. His ruddy face looked out at us with a smile as we all finished our conversations and turned to face him. Not that I could see all that much of him since Ivan was blocking my view. If it had been his face that was blocking it, I wouldn't have complained at all, but it was just the back of his head and Dimitri had way better hair than him. Not that his was horrible or anything, but I was a tall, dark and handsome kinda gal. Ivan was a dark blonde.

"Evening all," the headmaster said. "And welcome back to St. Basil's for another year. As I'm sure you all know, you're in for a tough year, especially our seniors so good luck to you all! And to the freshmen, good luck in your first intense classes, you're in for a tough ride I assure you, but hopefully an enjoyable one. As for the sophomores and juniors, continue working hard so that the coming years are that little bit easier. Juniors, you have your Qualifiers, make sure you make it count! For the Moroi amongst us, exams abound for you all, all of which are no less important than the last. I wish to all the best of luck. For now, I guess it is good night!"

There was a polite round of applause.

"Same speech every year," Ivan said with a shake of his head. "Come on, let's snag the pool table before Constantine does."

"Yeah, you can finally teach Jazz how to play," Inna teased with a wink.

I stuck my tongue out at her but followed them all to put our trays away and all the way up to the pool room. It was a large room with five tables in it all with lights over them. The balls were kept in boxes on a shelf by the scoreboard each table had and the cues were kept alongside. Dimitri and Tasha easily gravitated in that direction with Stiva. I hung back a little since I'd never even really played pool more than twice and both times I failed. Inna set the balls up on the table but looked like she had to concentrate to do it right. At least I wasn't the only one here who wasn't an expert.

"Alright then!" Ivan said and thrust a cue at me. "Hold that."

I took it in my hand.

"I meant, as if you were about to take a shot," he said seriously but I could see that he was trying to not laugh.

"Oh, erm…" I held it kinda how I thought I was supposed to.

Dimitri sniggered.

"What?" I asked.

Ivan stepped over and pushed me towards the table. "You might want to bend over a bit and move that hand back here," he said and moved my back hand further down the cue.

I felt like an idiot as he moved my other hand around so that the cue was resting on the join of my thumb and finger.

"Good! Now hit the white ball," he instructed.

I did, but it didn't reach the other balls. There were a few sniggers which were turned into coughs. Ivan said something in Russian which I didn't understand. I stood up because I wasn't going to be left bent over a table all night.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

He thought about it for a moment and then turned to Dimitri. "What do I mean, Dimitri?"

"Give it some force," he said.

Ivan put the white ball back where it should be. I took another shot and gave it an almighty whack scattering the other balls everywhere, even sending a couple flying off the table.

"Whoa!" Stiva yelped and jumped out of the way of a flying ball.

"Not that hard!" Ivan exclaimed.

"Well you said give it some wellie!" I protested.

They all looked at me like I'd grown a second and third head.

I sighed. "It means 'give it some force', 'hit it hard', that kinda thing."

"Try again," Ivan said.

"Oh no, I'm good," I said and propped the cue up against the wall just to make my point clear.

"How about you guys play doubles and Inna and I will play singles over here?" Stiva said to stop an argument.

"Good idea," Inna said brightly.

I suffered through the game and was rubbish even though I had a lot of help from Ivan, Dimka and Tasha. I didn't really enjoy it all that much, but maybe that was because I wasn't all that good at it. The other three were really good and almost always potted something. I was lucky if I hit my ball in the right direction, let alone put spin on it and whatever else. I didn't pot a single thing and was really glad then the game ended.

"It can't have been that bad!" Tasha exclaimed when I gave the cue a dark look.

"I bet it would be easier to kill someone with this than play pool with it," I muttered and put it away.

"I don't think she likes pool, Ivan," Dimitri whispered to Ivan.

"Me either."

I sat around as the rest of them played pool for the next hour or so and then I was so bored I went upstairs to grab a shower.


	12. Chapter 11

**Ok, I can't remember when I last updated so, sorry if this is late. Hope you like this chapter. **

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I got up before Inna the next day and silently slipped out to get a run in before breakfast. It only took me about twelve minutes to run the three miles and then I went straight into breakfast where Dimitri was already sat with his breakfast but was staring at it more than eating it. I got my food and sat opposite him.

"Dimka?" I asked.

He looked up. "Oh, hi. It's just a bit strange Karolina not being here. Ignore me."

I half smiled. "No Karolina, but Tasha…"

"Please don't," he sighed.

"You're gonna have to tell her at some point you know."

"I know," he sighed again. "Where have you been?" he asked.

"Running. It's kinda a habit now."

"Not a bad one."

"Morning, Dimka!" Tasha brightly said from behind him.

Dimitri instantly looked trapped and his eyes were begging for help.

"I'm gonna go refill my cup," I announced and gave him a meaningful look.

I took my time getting there and slowly filled my half full cup. Even the chef was looking over to Dimitri with sympathy. When I turned to go back to the table Tasha was dashing from the room. She had to detour to get round a gaggle of freshmen and almost crashed into me.

"This is all your fault you know. I hate you!" she snapped and pushed passed me.

Shocked I wasn't sure I could have said anything even if she had stuck around for long enough. I made my way back to my seat. Dimitri looked a bit upset but relieved at the same time.

"How did she take it?" he asked.

"She's Tasha, how do you think she took it?" I asked. "I'm surprised my face survived."

We sat in silence for a couple of minutes and then the rest of the guys sat down.

"We just saw Tasha, what's up with her?" Stiva asked.

I quickly explained and then shifted the topic over to the first day back and commented on how the year was going to fly by. Dimka sent me a look of thanks as Ivan prattled on about what subjects he'd chosen this term. Soon enough the bell went and Dimka, Stiva and I made our way to our first combat class of the year.

"I'm not going to waste any time, set up do a quick warm up and then begin sparring," Sharapovic, our instructor, instructed.

Dimitri and I had our space set up in next to no time and began to circle each other. He made the first move which I blocked, the second which I dodged and then I took him down with a move Dad had shown me. He looked surprised as he lay on the floor looking up at me.

"I've only seen one other person do that," Sharapovic said in slight awe. "Nikolai Dimitrivic. Know him?"

"Yeah. He lets me call him Dad," I shrugged.

"Ah, no wonder you know it so well. We were class mates together. I hear he's back at work?"

"Yeah, he went back a week ago," I confirmed.

"Really? That's great! Well, you teach Dimitri that, he looks pretty upset you know something he doesn't," he said and then walked off.

Dimitri jumped up. "How _did_ you do that?"

I smiled and did it again. He got up with a groan.

"I'll go slowly this time shall I?" I grinned because taking him down like that felt pretty awesome.

I showed him the move in stages and eventually sped them up. Then I let him have a go and talked him through it as he did so. When he had it down we went back to sparring and he took me down with it straight away. I landed wrong because he'd been a bit over zealous and overbalanced himself as he did it.

"I shouldn't have taught you that," I groused. "That hurt."

He grinned at me.

In reply I took his knees out but he managed to scramble up before I could take him out properly and it turned into another sparring match which I won thanks to another of Dad's moves. Again, Dimka looked put out.

"Stop showing off you two," Sharapovic called. "Come here and grab a pole each and get in lines."

We each grabbed a training staff and got into lines with our classmates to go through the drill we used to warm up with these weapons. We didn't even need to have the names for the moves called out to us anymore. We just did it in perfect, silent synchronisation. It almost felt like a dance or something used to calm the nerves. I always liked doing these exercises in class, even if it was just a series of attack and defence moves. I found that doing them cleared my head and helped me think more clearly.

Once we'd been doing that for ten minutes we were instructed to spar with them.

"Any new moves for these?" Dimka asked before we even started.

"Dad taught me a few things. Want me to teach you first?"

He nodded and turned studious. I showed him different things for ten minutes and then we began to spar at a furious pace. Then he whacked my arm with the staff. It sent shooting pins and needles down my arm and I dropped the staff. Gritting my teeth I forced my arm to move otherwise it was going to be dead all day. I dropped to a roll to get out of the way of his next blow and picked my staff back up and did the only thing I could at that moment which was hit him in the balls. I didn't do it too hard, but hard enough to make him stumble so that I could knock him down.

"Ok, ok! I give!" he gasped. Ok, so maybe I hit him a bit harder than I thought.

I plopped down next to him and looked at my arm. It was bruised already. I prodded it a bit which was a mistake.

"Ow," Dimka said.

"Good," I muttered. "I can't move my arm properly."

"Alright, class dismissed!" Sharapovic called.

We both hauled ourselves up from the floor and trudged to our next class which was conditioning. We both felt like we were going through torture for the whole hour, but then we were allowed to hit the showers. I nearly just stayed in mine but supposed I really had to get to theory.

I trudged in just before the late bell went. I saw sat between Dimka and Stiva. I told Dimka I hated him. Stiva laughed.

* * *

**So how was it? Hope you liked it and please leave a review :D **

**Richelle Mead owns all **


	13. Chapter 12

At dinner we all sat at our usual table sans Tasha. Dimitri looked concerned because we hadn't seen her at lunch either.

"She looked alright in class," Inna reassured us. "Hey there she is, look," Inna pointed.

She was walking up to the table looking determined. "Can I talk to you, Jasmine?"

She'd never called me Jasmine. As soon as we met she shortened it down to Jazz. Without saying anything I stood up and followed her out of the hall and over to her room where she viciously turned away from the window to glare at me. She'd shut the door too which should have worried me, but I knew she wouldn't hurt me, she wouldn't get the chance.

"You stole him from me!" she hissed.

"What?" I asked because that was ridiculous.

"We were real good friends, nearly more than friends until you turned up and started spending all your time with him."

Incredulous I exclaimed, "We share all of our classes! What else am I going to do? Ignore him?"

"Well you should have," she enunciated every syllable perfectly. "He's… _infatuated_ with you."

"No he's not!" I exclaimed because she was getting angrier and angrier all the time and was taking steps towards me.

"He is. When I ask him about his summer he's always got stories of you and when you went round to his house for dinner and when he went over to yours and –"

"We're neighbours!" I told her. "When I was at his house for dinner Dad was invited to and when he came over to mine either it was because he needed help with tenses in English or his whole family was invited over! God, Tasha. This is ridiculous!"

She went to slap me, but I caught her wrist.

"Don't you dare," I growled.

She raised an eyebrow and glanced at my arm. "You let Dimitri hurt you."

"It's training. It's rarer to not get hurt somehow. You know, if you start some rumour it will reflect badly on him too."

"I'd never do that to him!" she gasped and wrenched her hand away.

I nearly commented that she was finally talking sense about something, but didn't want to start another argument. "I'm going back to dinner. I don't have time for crap like this. Dimitri told you the truth because he's a decent guy. Get over it."

I wrenched the door open and stalked out of there and back to the canteen. Before I walked in though I calmed myself down and made sure I had a neutral face on.

"What was all that about?" Dimka asked.

"How it's apparently all my fault. Don't worry, I straightened it out," I said before he could do anything stupid like go up there and tell her off himself.

"The last time someone did this to her, she slapped the girl she blamed," Ivan said with amusement.

"No one could lay a hand on her if they tried," Stiva gloated for me. "Apart from Dimitri maybe. You have so got to show me those moves!"

"When I can move my arm again," I promised.

* * *

And so that's how we spent most of the first two terms. Tasha did eventually warm up to me a little and she sat back at our table, she just didn't talk to me much. I taught Stiva, Dimitri and Inna the moves Dad had taught me and Ivan decided he wanted to learn how to punch things. Inna and Stiva didn't come running with me every day, just at the weekends, but Dimitri came every morning and we challenged each other's lap times all the time. Inna said our competitive streaks were unhealthy, but we carried on anyway.

For the holidays I went back to Dimitri's house since Olena didn't want me to be alone in Dad's house. Since she knew that there wasn't anything going on between us I was allowed to camp in his room on a temporary bed, but there was a curtain rail put up to divide the room. I mostly didn't use it though. When I wanted some space from the raucous family I retreated to Dad's house. It wasn't very often though that I went there, mostly so that I could call him and Mum in private.

All that normality of that routine changed though when our field placements began.

We were all seated in the tiered seating in the assembly hall waiting in nervous anticipation for our names to be called out. I was fortunate that I didn't have to wait long, but Inna and Stiva had to wait ages since their last names were at the end of the alphabet. Dimitri was first.

"Dimitri Belikov, Alexi Conta," the head of the guardians here, Guardian Moiseyev called.

I vaguely knew Alexi. To say Dimitri had a wealth of sympathy from every novice present was an understatement. Dimitri walked down there looking perfectly calm as he collected his things. I wondered how he did it.

I had to wait another few minutes before my name was called out.

"Jasmine Cloud, Darya Ivashkov."

I got up immediately but I had no idea who the girl was. I collected my stuff and slung the stake belt around my waist so that I could focus on the file. The first page had a picture of her. She was a beautiful shade of dark blonde and had the same aristocratic features all royals – good skin and a well sculpted face. She was also one of the more beautiful ones. Her eyes were ice blue and framed with thick lashes, her lips formed a perfect pout by themselves and her cheekbones looked like they were sculpted by Athena herself. I sighed because I remembered a few stories about her now, how she was a queen bitch and didn't like Dhampirs one bit. She was also one of the Moroi girls I threatened after the fainting in front of the queen thing.

"Good luck," Dimitri fervently wished me.

"Thanks. You too. What's your time table?"

We compared time tables and saw that they shared two classes a day. I was glad of that because for two hours a day I'd be with a friend, even if we didn't talk to each other much.

"Hi guys!" Inna called. Stiva was with her. "We got the Vasilov twins."

"Good for you," I grouched. I'd been with them for a couple of lessons this term and they were great. I wished I had them.

"Yeah, I feel sorry for both of you," Stiva said. "Good luck."

"Yeah you too," Dimka and I said together as we were ushered out of the hall.

I picked up my bag of clothes and the blanket I'd brought with me and headed for the canteen and commons where the rest of the upper campus were lounging.

Ivan immediately bounded over to us. So who got me?" he asked.

"No one," we all said.

"What? I don't rate a guardian?" he asked with a pout. "I thought I rated a guardian!"

I laughed. "Don't be silly, Ivan. You're not in any real danger unless you run out of hair spray. It's me who is. I got Darya Ivashkov."

"Oooouch," he cringed. "Well, she's over there gloating that she'll surely get Dimitri." He pointed to the back of the hall.

I sighed. "If you hadn't told me that I'd be free for another ten minutes whilst I found her."

He smiled. "I'm sure you'll be fine. And we have some classes together," he winked. "See you then," he said and pushed me in the right direction.

I walked over there not letting the situation bother me. If I went over there looking reluctant she'd rip me to shreds. I made myself walk with a purposeful, but casual and unconcerned, step and held my head high. I tied my hair up properly as I walked over there. I was in jeans and a denim jacket which Mum got me for my birthday. It wasn't designer like Darya's, but they were nice and didn't show off my mid-riff and chest. I wondered how she had got away with it because her outfit certainly flaunted the dress code, especially as she was in a denim mini skirt too. Her hair was in a neat bun which showed off her slender neck. It was like she was asking for a guy to do blood whore things with her.

"Darya?" I asked.

She turned from her conversation with pursed lips and looked me up and down for a moment. "What?"

"I'm you're guardian for the next few weeks," I told her.

"No. You're not," she said and turned away from me.

I could have left it there and followed her around anyway, but that would make her think that I wasn't willing to stand up to her. I was her guardian not her personal 'I get to trample all over you dummy'. "Yes, I am, Darya," I said a little more firmly, but not as a challenge.

She stopped talking and paused for a moment before turning to me. "Give me that," she snapped and snatched the folder I was holding from my hands giving me a nice paper cut as she did so. I didn't let it show.

She snapped it open and looked at the first page, and then at all the pages before snapping it shut and shoving it back into my hands. "I don't want you. Go and complain to a guardian about it." She turned back to her conversation.

"I can't do that. If you want me to transfer you're going to have to talk to Guardian Moiseyev yourself."

"I've ordered you to go!" she snapped with a flash of danger in her eyes.

"I'm your guardian, I'm not leaving your side for a moment. There might be an attack," I said and made a point of looking around.

"I'm willing to risk it."

"I'm not," I snapped because it was clear that she wasn't going to listen to me if I played nice. "You want me transferred, sort it yourself," I told her and then took up a position where I could see the vast majority of the hall.

Vasilisa, a fellow classmate, was a few feet away and could see the parts of the hall I couldn't. She looked over to me with sympathy in her eyes. She was lucky she was protecting her half brother. They didn't talk much since they barely knew each other but they could get on alright when they had to. She was lucky, she might get to know him more over the course of the six weeks and actually develop a healthy relationship with him.

Darya then dramatically stood up and flounced out of the hall. I hadn't been expecting it since her tiny portion of chips had barely been nibbled at, but followed her anyway. She didn't go towards the classrooms, but back to the hall where the guardians were still gathered.

"Moiseyev!" she snapped.

"_Guardian_ Moiseyev!" the headmaster snapped. "How dare you not address him properly, girl?!"

She didn't even look at him. "I want her transferred. Now."

"No can do, Miss Ivashkov," he said calmly and turned back to whatever he had been doing.

"I – My father will hear about this!" she threatened.

"Tell him," Mosieyev replied in a bored tone.

"It'll go to Aunt Tatiana."

Whoa, I hadn't realised she was _that_ royal. Oh well.

"I'm sure it will," he said in the same tone as before.

"And you – you'll lose favour with her."

"She isn't that shallow."

I choked back a bark of laughter and continued coughing.

She floundered for a moment. "Swap her with Dimitri and I won't tell her about this."

"No."

"Why?" she demanded and very nearly stamped her foot.

_Because they took pity on him and don't think he deserves you drooling all over him for six weeks, _I didn't say aloud.

"Because I said so," he replied still bored and began reading something.

"I'm having nothing to do with her. She's going against our culture. She actually wants to be a _guardian_."

"Good for her!" he darkly snapped and slammed the folder he was holding down on the table that was next to him. Darya jumped. "She's made an adult decision, the one which is right for her and here you stand acting like a child because you can't get your own way!" the rest of his lecture was spoken too fast for me to keep up with but none of it sounded very nice. The last thing he said was, "Go and sit on the floor over there and wait for your guardian to collect you."

She scuttled away and sat in the exact spot she was pointed to, on the floor even though there was a chair next to her. There were tears in her eyes and she was trembling.

Moiseyev turned to me instantly calmer. "I've wanted to do that for a long time," he said in French.

Surprised I didn't reply straight away. Then I had to remember the French I learned as a child. I knew a lot of all the languages of the places I'd lived, but French was the only one was I completely fluent in. "I nearly said pretty much the same out there."

"If I could I would have given you extra points," he sighed and perched himself on the table.

I flicked my eyes over to her.

"A guardian even now," he said with a half smile. "Before you turned up I really was going to put Belikov with her, but I felt too awful. I gave you both the worst people of your own genders I could."

"Extra challenge?" I jested.

"Exactly," he said all seriousness. "Just… do the best you can. And – why are you bleeding?"

I lifted my hand up to have a look at it. It was worse than I had thought. "Paper cut. She snatched the file from me. She didn't mean to."

His eyes went hard and his jaw clenched. Then he walked over to the first aid box which was drilled onto the wall a few feet away and came back with a bandage which he wrapped round my hand.

"Make sure she knows who's boss and –"

"I know," I interrupted. "I won't let her walk all over me."

He nodded and finished tying the bandage. "Good. Get to class now."

I walked over to Darya who looked up at me. "Come on let's take a slow walk over to fashion. We need to talk on the way."

She stood up and didn't look as prim and proper as before. I knew that it wouldn't last long, but it was good to see. "I don't have to like you," she said in a sukly voice.

"No. But you have to put up with me being around for the next six weeks. The easiest way is if you do what you normally do – bar skipping out on curfew if that's what you normally do – and I'll be a fly on the wall," I said. I wasn't making a compromise, it was one of the ways guardians worked. Either they looked like they were friends with their charges or they kept to the silent shadows.

"Fine," she said thinking that she'd won.

Casually and without looking at her I said, "But if you do something stupid, I will stop you. If you break any rules I'll stop you. If you so much as insult my friends it will come back to haunt you after placements end. You got that? When my friends ask what the bandage is for I will tell them the truth. Oh you'll be fine for six weeks, sure, even if one of them decided to hunt you down on Sunday, but because it's placement's I'll be there to stop them. After that… I won't be here to protect you."

Before that had a chance to sink in I dropped back a few paces so that I could see more of the area. A lone moroi freshman walked passed.

We didn't say another word each other all day and that was fine. I ate my dinner stood up because there wasn't any room for me at her table, but that was fine I didn't want to have to sit with her anyway. When she finished dinner she didn't go back to the commons as I thought she would, but over to the headmaster's office.

She knocked on the door and waited to be called in.

"Enter," the headmaster called.

She went in.

"Ah, Miss Cloud, take a seat over there," he said and waved to a chair in the corner of the room.

From there I could see out of both of the windows and see the whole room but I stayed stood up.

Darya wasn't allowed to sit down but was lectured, again I didn't manage to take it all in, and was then set about the task of dusting the shelves. I watched her and the windows. When she was finished she looked disgusted but presented herself back in front of the desk.

"You're confined to your dorm after classes for the next week, including the weekend. Miss Cloud will ensure you do exactly that. We'll see how I'm feeling on Monday after dinner. Dismissed."

"Yes, Sir," she said and walked out.

I escorted her up to her room and dumped my bag down with a pointed thud as soon as the door was closed. I'd been carrying it around all day and even though it was only clothes it had been getting heavier and heavier as the hours passed.

"You'll have to sleep between the beds," she said and dumped some blankets from the bottom of her wardrobe down there.

I looked out of the window first and when I was satisfied that no one could climb up or down to it, I set to making my bed. I was about done when her room mate, Anya if I remembered rightly, entered the room.

"Where have you been since dinner?" she asked Darya.

"Just talking to the headmaster," she replied.

"Oh, what about?"

"Nothing you need to know about," she snapped.

The alarm on my watch beeped. Both the Moroi looked at me.

"Shower time. I've got half an hour." I gave Darya a pointed look before I got my things together and left.

I sighed as soon as I was out of there and felt myself relax. I had half an hour of me time. One of the bathrooms had been marked as 'Novice Bathroom, Male and Female'. I headed in there.

"Agh!" I yelped when a guy bent over in front of me and lost his towel. I slammed my eyes shut.

He yelped too. "Sorry. Uh… Decent." It was Stiva.

"Sure?" I asked.

"Yeah."

I cracked my eyes open and when I saw that his towel was at a decent height I opened them properly. "Didn't you read the part that said 'Male and Female'?"

He blushed from his toes to the tips of his wet hair.

"So you got Alexis?" I asked.

"Yeah. She's pretty cool," he nodded. "How's Darya?"

"_Nightmare_," I sighed. "But she knows who's boss."

He raised an eyebrow. "And the bandage is for?"

"Paper cut. She snatched the folder out of my hands and, yeah." I shrugged. "You can get her after placements. I just really wanna shower."

"Can't say I blame you relishing time away from her," he said. "I've got another ten minutes, I'll bandage you up if you're quick."

"Thanks."

I headed over to a shower cubicle and hurried through my shower. I didn't really like long showers, but I was sure that before the end of this I would be having a few twenty minute long ones. I quickly changed into pyjamas since I wasn't going to be going anywhere but the other side of the hall, and my pyjamas were joggers and a t-shirt anyway.

Stiva was sat on a bench looking at his watch. "I was about to go."

I sat next to him. He had a bandage out already and quickly bound my hand.

"Thanks."

"No problem. I gotta dash."


	14. Chapter 13

**Ok, this is a bit of a filler chapter so I'm getting all the not quite so interesting stuff out of the way, but it sets the next chapter up nicely. Trust me, the next chapter is way more interesting than this one. **

* * *

The next day I woke up early but stayed lying where I was so that I didn't wake the madams up. Anya wasn't as bad as Darya, she ignored me mostly. I wasn't too bothered by it, but it would have been nice to be with one person who was a little above frosty towards me.

The first class of the day couldn't come quick enough. I'd had to stand through breakfast, and was expected to stand the rest of the day too. I was more glad than I cared to admit to see Dimitri hanging around by the classroom door. He gave me an encouraging smile. I gave him one back since I knew he was in for a ride as rough as mine. The weekend couldn't come soon enough.

It was then that one of the seniors of the class attacked me with a ruler. I jumped back wondering what was going on for a split second, but then I decided that getting the ruler off him was a more important job. I squeezed the pressure points on his hand and he dropped it. I let it fall to the floor and pinned him to the wall.

"What was that about?" I asked.

"Guardians…" he gasped because I was pinning him a bit too effectively.

I looked around and saw that Dimitri was facing two guardians, both of them had staffs, but he didn't have anything besides his stake.

"Are you a threat?"

He struggled and stomped on my foot. I took that as a yes and 'staked' him. Then I instructed all the Moroi to stay behind me – they were backed into a dead end so were safe since the door to the classroom was the other side of the fight. I tripped one of the guardians over and kicked his elbow so that he let go of one end of the staff. I kicked the other wrist and pulled the staff at the same time so that he let go of it and brandished it myself because he scrambled up really quickly.

Dimitri was sent crashing into me, but I steadied us with my staff and pushed back on it. He went off to fight his guy and I fought mine for a few minutes before I was able to ditch the staff and pull my stake. Trouble was he pulled a gun out.

I threw the stake at his head as a distraction and launched myself at him at the same time. He flinched and his shot went wild, I crashed into him sending him sprawling and I landed with my chest on his head. As awkward as that was it meant I could reach my stake. I grabbed it, but he flipped us both over. I elbowed him in the side of the head which dazed him – and kinda hurt me too – and then flipped him back over and staked him in a fluid movement.

I sprung back up and looked around, but since Dimitri was busy watching I knew it was safe. I looked around anyway.

"How come you didn't kill Mikhail right away?" one of the guardians asked me.

"He might have been under compulsion," I replied. "Used as a distraction."

"It worked," he said bluntly.

"I checked Dimitri was fine. I know what he's capable of."

Both the guardians took down notes and then walked away. A few moments later the rest of the class and the novices following their charges arrived and we went into the classroom.

The rest of the day was quiet until dinner when there was another attack I had to deal with. It was the same time Dimitri, who was on the other side of the canteen, was attacked so there was a show for everyone in the room. I was up against Moiseyev and we had to negotiate tables, benches and the students who were being shepherded out of the way by other novices. I had to skid under a table and a bench at one point, but I slammed my back against the thick leg of the next table as I emerged. It was the corner too which made it that much worse.

I gasped in pain, but then he was there, standing over me. I scrambled under the table which, at low speed, was the worst thing I could have possibly done, but at the same time the only thing I could have done. He jumped up on the table and off the other bench so I went back the way I had come then over the table and 'broke his neck'. He fell to the floor which was where I staked him. Only he came around too soon and moved so my hit missed. I grabbed a tray that was on the table, whacked his head with it really hard – luckily it emptied itself as I picked it up – and then successfully staked him.

I got up and sat on a bench after making sure there were no more fights going on. Walking wasn't going to be happening for the next little while.

"Never been hit with a dinner try before," he said.

"Never been attacked with a ruler before either," I said. "Your idea was that?"

He nodded. "Your back ok?"

"Will be."

* * *

And so that first week lasted. Dimitri and I seemed to get attacked at least twice a day, even though I was confined to Darya's room with her for the evening. I moved stiffly all day for the whole week, the only respite I found was in having a shower each night with really hot water to take some of the pain away. But it was a really fun week, considering. When Saturday night's curfew was only an hour away we were all allowed to go back to the Dhampir dorms.

"Jazz!" Inna exclaimed when she saw me. We hadn't seen each other all week. "How are you? How's your week been?"

"Sorry, guys," I said because they were all there, "But I'm going for a nice long, hot bath."

"Still that bad?" Stiva frowned.

"It was the corner of that table leg, Sti," I groused. "It's really bruised."

I headed upstairs and snagged the first bathroom I came across. Once the water had been run I sunk down into the bubbles and sighed. It was lovely. In the end I only got out because Inna told me it was curfew.

Feeling a lot better I walked back to our room and sunk into my bed with a happy sigh.

"So, how is it?" she asked.

"So long as we don't talk to each other we're fine," I surmised.

"Ouch. I'm not going to tell you how awesome my week was then."

I chuckled. "I'm sure Dimka and I will hear all about yours and Stiva's awesome weeks plenty tomorrow whether we want to or not."

"Well, if Ivan asks. Looking forward to seeing him?"

I looked over at her. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You looked down right upset when he left last term."

"No I didn't," I replied.

"And all those silent conversations you two have."

"No we don't."

"And how you look for him across the hall as you're keeping watch."

"Inna –"

"And the way he stares at you when you're not looking."

"Stop."

"It's either sickening or romantic, I'm not sure which."

"_Inna_!"

She laughed. "Love sick – oomph!"

I'd thrown a pillow at her. "Just go to sleep."

"Spoil sport," she said and chucked the pillow back with a laugh.

I threw it back to her just 'cause. She threw it back and then rearranged her own pillows.

"Night, Jazz."

"Night, Inna."

* * *

We both woke up late the next day and slowly got ready to go down for breakfast. I was all stiff again but my back didn't actually hurt so I didn't complain about it. When we did get down to the canteen Ivan was by my side in an instant and held my tray for me even though it was empty.

"How's your back?" he asked.

"Stiff."

"I'll get you a Danish. And a banana and –"

"Ivan I can –"

"And you always eat yoghurts don't you?" he picked one of those up too and plonked it on my tray.

"I'm fine, Ivan." He put something else I didn't like on my tray. "_Eve_!"

He looked at me sharply. "I know the… uh… I in English sounds like an 'E', but isn't Eve a girl's name?"

"Yeah. It is. Stop being a big girl's blouse about me being injured, I'm not. Jeez," I said.

Whilst he was busy trying to figure out what 'big girl's blouse' meant I took my tray from him and unloaded it and replaced the Danish with a croissant, the banana with a peach and the strawberry yoghurt with a banana one with chocolate flakes. Then I picked up some bread and butter and a drink.

"Here, let me –"

_"I'm fine," _I frostily told him and walked over to the table.

Ivan sat at the other end.

"He was just trying to be nice," Inna whispered.

"I don't need help with my tray," I told her.

"He was being a gentleman."

"A gentleman would have asked," I snapped in an undertone.

"You let him carry your boxes down to the coach at the end of term," she protested.

"Yeah, because I had a suitcase to lug down the stairs!"

"But –"

"Inna," I said in That Tone. "I don't need his or anyone's help right now ok?"

"Ok, Jeez," she said and backed off.

"Inna, tell Ivan about what Levin did in class yesterday!" Stiva called over.

She launched herself into the story of how he tripped over and fell face first into the fish tank. Everyone else found it hilarious, but I wasn't exactly in the mood for it.

* * *

"Hey," Ivan said to me at dinner the next Friday evening.

"Hi," I replied with a bright smile.

After being attacked every day for the first week, not being attacked at all this week had been driving me insane. I was ready for another fight, begging for one even. I was a tight spring ready to snap. But I was keeping calm about it, at least on the outside.

And, like Inna had said last Saturday night, I'd been looking for him in the hall. I'd been disappointed when I hadn't found him, but now that he was here I was feeling pretty good about the situation even though I was being forced to eat standing up again which was real hard when I needed to use a knife and fork at the same time.

"Oh for the love of god, Darya, make some room for her!" Ivan snapped at her.

She looked round from her conversation startled. It had been about him and how she now fancied him instead of Dimitri. She moved along and Ivan pushed me into the seat. Then he leaned down to kiss me.

Now, while I normally would have relished the moment and whilst my heart was beating at a thousand miles an hour I knew that I didn't want him to kiss me right now. Everything that Inna had said last Sunday was right. I'd been missing him like crazy and I hadn't wanted him to leave when the end of last term rolled around. But I didn't want him to kiss me right now even though I could feel the soft passion in the air because I wouldn't be able to enjoy it.

So before he could I turned his face away and said, "I'm on duty."

Cool as a cucumber.

I went back to my dinner and cut up my stake. He hovered over me for a couple more moments and then walked off. I kept a wry smile to myself as Darya and her friends stared at me.

* * *

The next day, Saturday, Guardian Moiseyev found me and told me that I had to go with him to his office, but that Darya was to stay behind.

"She won't get attacked," he assured me when I looked uneasy.

Still, I only reluctantly left her behind. We headed outside and it was only then that he struck up conversation.

"Sorted things with her?" he asked.

"Oh yes," I said. "We pretend the other doesn't exist as much as possible."

He huffed. "Why am I not surprised she agreed to that. It's not a fun way to guard someone that's for sure."

"Better than dealing with her idiotic drivel every day," I muttered.

"And Ivan? He was going to kiss you yesterday."

"Ugh, was the whole hall watching?" I asked. "He really picked the right moment for that. Bloody idiot."

"Nah, it was only me. It was _hilarious_."

"Uh huh."

"Between him looking lost and her looking furious and you sat there –oh what's that English phrase?"

"Cool as a cucumber?"

"Yes, that's it! It was picture worthy. In fact I believe Natasha Ozera had her Polaroid out…"

Oh she did, did she? So she didn't talk to me for months, but she thought it was ok to take a photo of me did she? Oh well she had another thing coming! There was no way that was ok!

"Anyway… Here we are," he said and opened the door for the guardian's building for me. "My office."

I headed into the office which was just behind the front door. It was a large space that had notice boards on all the walls and there were filing cabinets underneath them instead of low bookcases.

"Miss Ivashkov is going to court because she's turning eighteen and she's the Ivashkov prince's granddaughter and the great niece of the queen she's having a big party thrown for her," he said a gestured me to a chair in front of his desk. "Her cousin – blood related cousin – Alexi Conta is also going which is part of why we chose you two to guard them. I've already spoken to Dimitri about it. My question is, do you want to go with her?"

"Yes," I instantly replied. "Not for the glory of it or anything like that," I said quickly because he was looking a little worried about how quickly I'd replied. "But she's my charge. I don't want three days off or whatever while someone else does my job for me."

"Even if you do go she'll have the same amount of guardians there as if you weren't."

"Good, more protection," I said.

"Just like Dimitri. You're both really serious about this," he said with a shake of his head.

"Well, we're going to be out there doing this for real soon, may as well do it within the relative safety of court first," I pointed out.

"You'll be given real stakes but if somehow you come across a strigoi or any other threat you're there to protect Darya, not put yourself in danger. Let the guardians do the fighting."

"Yes, Sir," I replied.

"Good. Now, they'll give you a full briefing over there so try to not think about it too much. You've got ten minutes to get back."

"Thank you, Sir."

* * *

**So, excursion time in the next chapter! I hope you got though all this without getting too bored. Please leave a review! **

**All this brilliance belongs to Richelle Mead.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hey everyone... So my first thought after waking up this morning was I'M ACTUALLY GOING TO RUSSIA! yeah, I'm going to Russia in a few days so I won't be able to update from Christmas Day evening until maybe 2nd January. I'm going to see St. Basil's! Gah, so excited. Of course if I happen to see a certain Mr. Danila Kozlovsky I will tell you all ;) **

**Sorry, gloat over... New chapter feels :D **

* * *

As soon as I was free to leave Darya's side I rushed over to the commons instead of being stuck in Darya's room all evening. I hadn't old her that I was going with her to court and I was dying to tell someone. I saw Ivan as soon as I entered the room. He was stood up demonstrating something that must have happened today. I bounded over and sat next to Dimitri.

"Tell me you said yes too!" I said in loud English and interrupted whatever was going on.

He looked surprised at my sudden appearance. "I did but Mama threw up a fuss."

"Well of course she did," I said with a roll of my eyes. "But she will let you go in the end won't she?"

"Probably."

"Awesome!" I said and hugged him. "This is gonna be great!"

"Are you two gallivanting off somewhere?" Ivan asked with his hands on his hips.

Dimitri quickly explained what was going on.

"Oh, that's ok," Ivan shrugged. "For a moment I thought you were steeling my girl from me."

"Who say's I'm your girl?" I asked a little too high pitched for it to come across as normal.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me up from the chair. In a dance move he spun me towards him. It was a good job I was used to following movements and guessing what was required from me by the body language of the other person because I'd never danced in my life. Not like that anyway. When I was safely balanced and he had both his arms around me he ever so slowly leaned down. I was oh so warm and I was very aware of everyone looking away. I didn't care though. I felt so right where I was and _god_ he was taking far too long.

He smiled before he kissed me. I decided he was taking far too much pleasure in taunting me so I tiptoed and kissed him. He didn't squeal in protest, but seemed to like the fact that I'd beaten him to it. He pulled me closer and relaxed into the kiss which was slow and tender.

He broke apart and leaned his forehead on mine. "My girl," he whispered.

"Do you think Tasha will talk to her now?" Inna asked whoever she was sat next to.

"Oh if she thinks she can just talk to me after all this time she's got another thing coming," I huffed and broke away from Ivan who huffed. "What?" I demanded. "Is that being a bit harsh?"

"No! Not at all, Love –"

"Don't call me love."

"Ok," he said with his hands in the air in surrender.

"So what does everyone want to do this evening?" Stiva asked to stop an argument.

I sat down in the seat which had obviously been Ivan's.

"How's your week been, Jazz?" Inna asked.

"Well, the last conversation I heard Darya and her friends have was how she doesn't fancy Dimka anymore, but Ivan."

"What?!" he yelped which made us all laugh. "Oh, god!" he groaned when she came through the door.

Instead of doing anything sensible like act cool he pulled me out of the chair, sat in it himself and then pulled me on top of him.

"Smooth," I commented with a chuckle.

Darya glared at us, specifically me, and stalked off. I groaned and banged my head on Ivan's shoulder.

"Well that just made my next month even more hellish," I muttered.

"Oh, I'm sure you'll be fine. You're a guardian," he said and patted my head.

"Thanks. That made me feel much better."

"Good." He kissed my hair and that did make me feel better.

I stayed snuggled in his arms all night feeling soothed just by being there. We talked amongst each other for the whole hour before curfew laughing away.

* * *

"I'm going to miss you," Ivan said.

I rolled my eyes. "I'm only going to be there for a few days."

"Yeah, one of them a Sunday," he groused.

"I've got to go," I said and stepped away from him.

Lightly I kissed his cheek and then walked away. I hadn't packed much, just some smarter clothes for guarding in and some casual clothes for the flight home.

Dimitri gave me a knowing look when I met up with him.

"He's so clingy," I complained. "I'm only going to be gone three days!"

He didn't say anything but got on the plane. I followed and it was then that I realised that I hadn't told Darya that I was coming yet. Something she made quite clear when she saw me. She immediately stood up shooting daggers at me.

"Save it," I snapped. "I'm coming whether you like it or not."

She clicked her jaw shut and then sat back down.

"Bedside manor?" Dimitri asked.

"Don't, Dimka, please," I said and brushed passed him to grab a seat.

The plane was Darya's family jet so it was pretty luxurious and we had actual tub seats each, not the usual kind of seats you find in a plane. I slouched in it as much as I could and let out a deep sigh. The sooner these last few weeks of placements were over the better. I wanted nothing more than to sleep in my own bed for two nights together and not have to deal with snotty royal moroi.

Dimitri gave me a half smile that was about as tired as I felt. I felt better knowing that he was in the same position as I was in. At least I wasn't alone. I smiled back and felt better for it.

"So, how bad's Alexi?" I asked.

The moroi were far away enough to not hear. Ten from school were going to the party, but the others didn't have novices guarding them. Four guardians were coming with us, all from the lower campus so I had no idea who they were. The Moroi were all flirting with each other which was sickening. I really just wanted to go over there and tell Darya that the moroi she was practically sitting on top of was the kind that knocked you up and threw you down, but if I did he'd only say I was jealous. That would earn him a punch in the face and maybe the nuts and I didn't want that on my record.

"He started talking about wanting to do blood whore stuff with Inna," he growled.

"He what?" I loudly exclaimed and nearly got out of my seat to batter the guy. The only reason I didn't was Dimitri clamping his hand around my wrist and pulling me back down into my seat. I glared at him for a moment. "Tell me you did something!"

"Of course I did," he flippantly replied.

I opened my eyes wide. "Tell me you didn't punch him or something," I all but begged. He didn't need a black mark on his record.

"I wanted to believe me," he growled with clenched fists. "I just threatened him."

"And?" I asked.

"And I – I may have mentioned you somewhere in it."

"Good," I nodded. "Whatever you need to keep him away from Inna and I'll do it."

He nodded again. The plane levelled out and I relaxed a bit more.

"So, not you and Tasha, but you and Inna?" I asked him.

He scoffed. "No. I just…"

"You just?" I asked.

He sighed and scrubbed his face with his hands and leaned forward in his chair. "My father used to hit Mum. I broke his jaw when I was thirteen."

"Just hit her?" I tentatively asked.

He nodded.

"Inna wouldn't let that happen to her," I soothed. "You don't need to protect her she can –"

"You think Mum let him?" he incredulously asked.

"I never –"

"You had no idea what it was like, what happened!" he spat and stood up. "You have no idea what it was like to live like that! How dare you –"

"I never said that!" I nearly yelled as I shot out of my chair.

I was vaguely aware of all the other conversations abruptly stopping and everyone, even the guardians, turned to look at us. Dimitri seemed to realise too and plonked himself back in his chair. I sat down more calmly. Everyone else turned back to what they'd been doing before.

I sighed and leaned forward. "I have no idea what happened to your mum, and I didn't mean anything by what I said. All I know is that Inna would chop is balls off before he even got a chance to do anything to her."

He managed a chuckle. "That I can imagine." He sighed. "Sorry I lost it with you."

I shrugged. "I've had worse from Mum."

He raised his eyebrow. "What did the, uh, goodie shoes do?"

"Goodie two shoes," I corrected. "I sneaked out and followed her around at work one day. I stopped her getting killed by a strigoi, but ended up in hospital in a pretty serious way."

He did a double take. "When?"

"Two years ago. She made sure I stayed confined to my room at school for the whole year." I shivered because that had been torture. Then I looked around to make sure no one was looking this way and shrugged the shoulder of my t-shirt off.

"Bite marks," Dimitri breathed and traced them with a finger. His eyes turned intense and I swore he stopped breathing for a few seconds. Then he straightened up with a frown. "That's your staking arm."

I put the sleeve back on. "I couldn't stake back then and it was my shoulder or my neck. Not much of a choice."

"No wonder you stayed behind," he murmured. "You wanted to protect me from that."

I sighed and nodded. "I also knew that I needed to face that fear before I graduate if I want to do my job properly. I didn't know if I'd get flashbacks or…" I sighed again. "Mum made me promise to run next time. She drilled it into me pretty good and I - I nearly ran even though I shouldn't have." I sat back in my chair. "There are a bunch of reasons I made you run, Dimka. More reasons than just saving your life. Saving mine in the future and any charge I might have."

"You managed to weigh that all up in a second?" he asked lightly to try and lighten the mood.

I laughed. "Multi-tasking. It's a woman thing."

"How's Darya?" he asked.

"Nightmare."

* * *

**Please leave a review as part of the Christmas spirit? **

**VA is owned by Richelle Mead**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hey there! Long chapter today since in a couple of days I won't be able to review for a week or so. Russia here I come! I hope you like this chapter! **

* * *

When the plane eventually landed we all gratefully got off. Darya for once seemed to forget I was there and happily walked towards her family home. I immediately went to follow her but a hand pulled me to a stop.

"So focused," Dad said.

I grinned and quickly hugged him. "I've got to –"

"You're off duty, Kid," he said.

I looked back to Darya and saw that there were guardians following her, but I was still uneasy about leaving her. It was dark. But we were behind wards and strigoi couldn't get in here.

"Really?" I asked hopefully.

He smiled. "Really."

I grinned some more and gave him a proper hug. He kissed my cheek and held me closely.

"Didn't think I'd be seeing you so soon," he said.

"Surprise."

He laughed a little. He let me go and turned to Dimitri. "Your mother made me promise to watch over you. You can stay at my place."

I frowned. "We're not staying with our charges?"

"Nah. You don't need to here. And my place is closer to theirs than guest housing."

Dimitri and I looked uneasily at each other but then nodded at the same time.

"I'll get you some dinner, you can have a nap and then it's off to the party," Dad said. "Unless you want to spend your time getting ready."

"We are ready," Dimitri frowned.

Dad looked between us for a moment. "You're going as guests. A little undercover work for Russia's best novices."

"Really?" I asked in excitement.

"Yeah."

"Awesome!" Dimitri crowed. "But –"

"You're both tall enough and –"

"It's a masquerade," I finished. "Perfect. Only I don't have a dress."

Dad rolled his eyes. "Do you really think I'm that unprepared? Come on, let's eat."

The house wasn't far away and when we got there we instantly started making food together. It wasn't anything complicated, just pasta and chicken, but we worked together effortlessly.

"So, you and Dimitri?" Dad asked quietly as we set the table.

"No," I told him.

"She's got Ivan remember," Dimitri said.

I froze.

"The Zveklos boy?" Dad asked.

"Um…" Dimitri unhelpfully said. "I'll go put our bags upstairs."

"You do that," Dad said not looking away from me.

I straightened up and had time to give Dimitri a glare before he hurried out of the room. Dad put the last plate on the table. I looked at him uneasily.

"A moroi?" he asked.

"He's not like that," I snapped because I knew his mind had gone straight to blood whore stuff.

"He might not be now –"

"And he never will be," I firmly finished.

"But if he does –"

"He won't!" I vehemently snapped.

"Humour me," he ordered.

"He wouldn't even dare suggest that because he knows what I'll do to him. Dad, I don't need you to protect me. There's nothing to protect me from."

"You know what people will say about –"

"Dad, you love a human. Ivan and I are hardly an impertinent match! You have no right to tell me who I can and can't date!"

"Jasmine, he's –"

"No, Dad. Discussion _over_. I'm going to get Dimitri."

I stormed out of the kitchen and headed upstairs. I had no idea where I was supposed to be heading, but an open door let into a bedroom and I could hear some movement in there. I walked in there and shut the door.

" 'She's got Ivan'?" I incredulously asked.

Dimitri stood up from the bed and held his hands up in surrender. "I thought you'd told him!"

"No. And for _precisely_ this reason. I thought you knew that!"

_"No." _

"Well, maybe you should have asked," I snapped.

I paced for a moment and then sat on the bed. This was a mess. I'd planned to tell Dad whilst I was here, true. But I'd planned to tell him gently because I knew how protective he could be and he knew what Moroi men did to women sometimes. Of course he'd jumped to conclusions. It's what men like him did.

It was all well and good him looking out for me, and I appreciated it, but I did not like the fact that he insisted on thinking that Ivan was an awful guy even though I'd told him otherwise. I wasn't some silly little girl who only believed Ivan loved me. He was a great guy and I… I thought that I loved him too.

He sat down next to me. "I'm sorry, Jazz."

I frowned. "Since when do you call me Jazz?"

He shrugged.

"Right. Dinner's ready."

We headed downstairs and calmly walked into the kitchen diner. Dad had put the food on plates and was pouring drinks. Dimitri and I sat down to what was an awkward silence. I pushed the food around my plate for a few moments. Dad was pursing his lips and Dimitri was slowly eating.

He glanced at me. I shrugged.

The silence lasted a while.

"Are Jasmine and I going as dates tonight?"

"_Dimitri_!" I hissed.

"As cover of course," he quickly added because Dad looked like he wanted to read Dimka the riot act.

Maybe it wasn't that Ivan was Moroi at all, but that I had a boyfriend of any sort that was bothering him. Well, I was going to straighten that out, at some point.

"Yes," Dad said, but it sounded like a grudging confession. "But make sure to dance with each other's Moroi at some point so that they know you're about should anything happen."

"Is anything going to happen?" I asked.

"Like what?" he innocently asked.

And just like that we all relaxed and there was no tension in the air. I put some chicken on my fork.

"Like you dropping down from the ceiling to brutally murder us all?"

He chuckled. "Nothing like that."

I felt easier.

"As far as I know."

"_Dad_," I complained.

He smiled.

"So sleep or hair preparation?" he asked.

"Sleep," we both said at the same time.

"Dimka, I'm fairly sure that question was just for me," I smiled.

"Oh, I don't know," Dad shrugged. "He's probably got some hairspray hidden in his rucksack."

"That's more like I –"

I kicked him under the table. Hard.

"Inna," he amended. "And I'm not a girl."

* * *

After dinner, which was breakfast for everyone else, Dimitri and I were allowed a four hour nap. There was only one spare bedroom and even though I was shorter than Dimitri he insisted that I have the bed and he have the floor. Dad woke us both up. I grabbed a quick shower and then wondered what to do with my hair since I didn't even know what the dress looked like yet. Dad insisted on keeping it as a surprise for as long as possible.

"Dad!" I whinged. "How am I supposed to look like I spent all day getting ready when I don't even know – Oh never mind," I groused when he chortled his way down stairs. "I didn't even bring bobby pins."

"Bobby whats?" Dimitri asked.

"Hair grips. Or make up."

"Make up your mind, Jazz."

Irritably I sighed. "I mean I haven't got any makeup either."

"Jazz! Shelia's here to see you!" Dad called from downstairs.

"Shelia?" I asked no one in particular.

She was coming up the stairs and walked in without pause. Shelia was a short guardian in plain jeans and t-shirt with her brown hair in a simple plait. She smiled.

"Hi, your Dad said all this undercover stuff was a surprise so I brought some vital supplies over," she said in an Australian accent.

"O-k," I replied.

She held out a bag and a box. "Shoes, bobby pins and makeup. You've got an hour before you have to be there."

"An hour? How long does this bloody thing last?" I asked. "It'll only be mid afternoon!"

"All night sometimes. Important lady this one."

"She's a bitch," I nearly snapped.

"Put your hair in a bun and the dress is in the wardrobe," she said. "You," she pointed to Dimitri. "Out."

He hurried out and headed downstairs.

I turned to the wardrobe and pulled the dress out. It was a dark green work of art that reached the floor and had a slight train, was puffed out a little by an underskirt and had lace covering the otherwise none existent back, the low cut chest and arms. The lace was patterned with delicate flowers and was shot through with umber shades.

I wasn't sure I liked it – it was green whereas I normally wore blue or red – and it wasn't practical for the job. I imagined it to be tight fitting across the back and in the arms restricting movement and though it was dark green there was a bit of a shine to it as well which was not working in it's favour.

Still, if it was what I had to wear…

Then I noticed the three inch heels. As if I wasn't tall enough.

I sighed and turned to the mirror. As instructed I put my hair in a neat bun but because it was curly some of it protested and fell loose, but it looked more arty like that so I left it. There were some decorative bobby pins too, in the shape of flowers and were umber in colour to hide amongst my hair, but shine in the light or something maybe.

The make up I only did very quickly since most of my face would be hidden by a mask all night, but I made sure to get the nude shade lipstick right and then I put the dress on.

It fit like a glove, caressing the small curves I had and making them look a little bigger. If I wasn't wearing this on a guarding assignment I would have fallen in love with it, but it was going to be a nightmare to move in if I had to. I'd have to pick it up to run up the stairs and I'd have to break the lace to punch properly and how was I supposed to kick anything?

I tugged the zip up, put the arch aching heels on and then headed downstairs.

"Isn't she ready yet?" Dimitri asked from the lounge.

"She'll be ready half an hour late if she is and you know what girls are like," Dad replied.

"Heard that," I said and stepped into the room.

They both stood up.

"Wow," Dad said. "You look…"

"Ivan's going to be so jealous," Dimitri said.

"Why?" I asked. "He's not here."

"And I get to dance with you all night," he said. "Bragging rights all year."

Dad slapped his head.

"Thanks, Dad," I said brightly. "Nice suit, Dimka."

He glared at it. The trousers and shoes were fine. So was the white shirt. It was the green bowtie and matching velvet blazer that had him annoyed. I couldn't say I blamed him for that. The colour suited him, but the velvet? I felt for the poor guy. It was a god awful choice of material.

"Here," Dad said and threw a gun at me.

I looked at it for a moment. "Where the hell am I supposed to put this?"

"Thigh."

"Coulda told me _before_ I put the dress on."

I headed back upstairs to attach the gun to my leg and when I came back down a sandwich was thrust into my hands. It was a huge one with the beef and stuffing falling out of it.

"Moroi portions are tiny," Dad reminded me.

Careful not to ruin the makeup or drop any of it down my dress I ate the sandwich and then it was time to go. Dad gave us ear wigs and then Dimitri and I pulled our masks down over our eyes and headed out. Dad was to follow a few minutes later.

"You know where this place is?" I asked him.

"No. We'll follow everyone else."

Everyone else was a lot of people, mostly adult royals but there were a few people our age attending. I assumed they were tutored here at court. The party was being held in the palace. All of us had to pass a set of guardians before entering the gardens and they were doing handbag checks. I hadn't brought one. They were also doing pocket checks. I didn't have any of those but had to watch Dimitri get a pat down.

"You're good to go, Sir, Ma'am," the guardian said.

"Thank you," we both replied and calmly walked through.

There were dogs sniffing people out, guardians were at the doors and then we had to sign into the palace, then into the ball room at a guess and we would be watched like hawks.

There were drapes everywhere in the Ivashkov colours and people were flowing in at a leisurely rate. Waiters walked by with drinks, but Dimitri and I declined them. We could not get drunk today.

"Ok, let's get this show on the road," a female voice down the earwig said. I nearly jumped. "First of all let's give a warm welcome to the novices joining us this evening, the lovely lady in the green and her date in the matching, uh, _velvet_ tux."

"I see them," Dad said. "Coming in through reception."

"Well, if anyone asks you're married."

I tripped over the dress. Dimitri steadied me before I could so much as stumble.

"Alright, dear?" he asked.

I smiled. "Fine."

"And your names are Zara and William Voda. You just moved over from Russia. You're friends of the Queen who will be attending tonight and will vouch for you. She's the only civilian who knows you're here."

"Don't faint on her," Dad said.

"What was that? I thought everyone knew making that joke got them a spell in hospital?"

Dimitri looked down at me. "Not tonight, Zara," he admonished.

"Dimitri, act man, make it look real," someone else said.

He caught my left hand and looked at it. "Forgetting something?"

"Um…"

He smiled and pulled a beautiful gold engagement ring and a wedding ring from his pocket. He slipped them on my finger. "What am I going to do with you. You'd lose you head if it weren't screwed on," he kissed my temple.

"Good," the same guy as before said down our ears.

Dad uncomfortably coughed.

"Sir, it's your turn, sir," a smirking guardian said to us.

We were holding up the line at the reception desk. We stepped over there. I signed in first and then Dimitri did too.

"In case you're wondering," the guardian murmured as we wrote our names down, "There are fire extinguishers near every exit."

"_Peter_!" Dad snapped.

Dimitri and I laughed and walked on.

"This night is going to be so strange," I sighed though I was still smiling.

"Our night as secret lovers," Dimka mused.

Dad spluttered.

"We should make a photo album, my love," he said.

I looked up to him with adoring eyes as he guided me towards the ball room. "To tease our very best friends with when we get back home?"

His eyes flicked around the lobby drinking in every detail and then met mine. "Exactly."

I laughed and looked away. There was a group of people waiting by the doors to the greeting room which, as we were then told, led to the grand dining room and then into the ballroom and a series of lounges.

"There's Alexi," I said and discreetly pointed him out.

He was in a black dinner jacket and his face was only obscured by a tiny eye mask so it was easy to identify him.

"Good job our masks are bigger than his," Dimitri murmured.

I agreed. They both covered the majority of our faces only leaving our noses and the lower half of our cheeks exposed. Mine was the same colour of my dress but had flowers made out of thin wire decorating it. The ones by my eyes stood away from the mask throwing them further into shadow and took attention away from the bottom half of my face making it less easy to remember. Dimitri's was green too and with the same overall shape, but his didn't have the flowers.

"Darya's going to come down in half an hour. From the balcony in the greeting hall. Tatiana will come before her. I'll keep you posted, I'm in the camera room," the grand master of the ear wig told us and then went silent.

"Shall we?" Dimitri asked and took me into the greeting lounge.

Lounge was a severe understatement. The room was bigger than Dad's house, there were tables and chairs set out on one side and there was a grand staircase leading down from the balcony which was at least twenty feet in the air and secured by a banister and guard of gold and silver twisted into a flowing pattern of angels and saints. The ceiling was protected by angels and gilt work. The floor was solid marble as were the columns holding the ceiling up. It was fifty feet in the air.

A waitress came by with a tray of canapés. We both took one and nibbled them.

"This is… goose pancreas," I said trying to keep a smile on my face.

"Disgusting," Dimitri muttered but ate the rest of his.

I supposed I had to too.

"If I throw up…" I warned.

"People will think you're either drunk already or assume you're pregnant," he said softly.

"The things we do at such short notice."

"I don't believe I recognise you!" I loud friendly voice said from our side.

I turned to see a tall moroi gentleman stood next to us with a triumphant looking smile on his face. His mask was bigger than mine and very nearly obstructed his lips and his eyes were in perfect shadow. For some reason I immediately felt at ease with him which was weird.

"I believe that is the whole point of the masks," I lightly joked.

He smiled some more. "Exactly. But… Well you're the youngest couple I've seen here so…" he lifted his mask up for a moment.

"You're just a kid!" Dimitri gasped.

"Yep. Broke in past the guardians here and at school!" he crowed. "Adrian Ivashkov," he bowed to me. "Now, if you aren't too tied up here –"

"We're married," I snapped and slipped an arm around Dimitri.

The kid tilted his head to the side. "Really? Doesn't look like –" he gasped. "You're dhampirs!"

I flicked my gaze around. No one seemed to be looking at us.

Someone stumbled into Dimitri. It was a well dressed woman. Dimitri caught her and set her straight.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" she gasped. "I'm so sorry –" tears alighted in her eyes which weren't covered by a mask. It seemed that she'd decided to forgo the whole dress code as she was in trousers and a cardigan. "I'm sorry, but my son's gone missing from St. Vladimir's and –"

"Would his name happen to be Adrian Ivashkov?" I asked.

"Yes. Why? Do you know where he is?"

I grabbed the kid as he tried to walk passed me and took his mask off.

"Adrian!" the woman gasped and hugged him. "Adrian, are you alright?"

He tried to squirm away from her. "I'm fine. Get off me."

She stepped away from him and put a scary face on. "Adrian Jonathan Ivashkov, get back to the house right now."

"Oh, Mom, come on!" he pleaded. "I just –"

"Now," she snapped and turned him round. She gave him a little push too.

"One problem solved," someone said down our ears.

I tisked. "Should have run sooner."

"And in the opposite direction," Dimitri said.

Alexi walked passed us and looked Dimitri up and down in a brief assessment.

"I do hope dear Tatiana's going to make an appearance tonight," I said. "Do you think she'll come through there?" I asked and pointed to the doors Alexi was heading towards to give me and excuse to watch him.

He swung round when he saw someone he knew and entered a brash conversation with them.

"Perhaps," Dimitri said. "It's been a while since we last saw her. Oh the stories I could tell about the dinner we had with her."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Is there anyone left to tell?"

"I'm sure I could find someone, love."

I elbowed him in the ribs.

And so for hours and hours we watched everything that was happening with a trained eye. We conversed with each other, made up conversations with each other and made sure that the Moroi from our school knew that we were here too. I didn't see Dimitri's encounter with Darya as I was dancing with a Conta lord whose name I promptly forgot, but I heard every word of it.

"What are you doing here?" she hissed. "This was supposed to be my night!"

"I'm here to keep you safe," he said.

"There are plenty of guardians here."

"True, but I want to pass my field placement."

"I suppose the English girl is here," she asked.

"Her name is Jasmine. And yes she is."

"Ah… The lady in the green dress. You'd look better with me."

"Normally I wouldn't wish to be seen dead with you," he said.

The waltz ended just then so I was able to curtsey to hide my coughing fit and grin. The lord led me to the side of the dance floor and then walked off. I chuckled and then gasped when a cold hand touched my back. It was Alexi.

"May I?" he asked.

"Of course," I replied since I hadn't yet told him who I was and this would be a good chance.

I let him lead me to a space on the dance floor and we waltzed.

"I've been watching you all night," he murmured.

"Really?" I asked pretending to be flattered.

"Yes." He leaned closer and whispered in my ear, "You're ravishing."

Inside I threw up.

"Your dress is a fine work of art to sculpt your body."

I played along seeing how far I could stretch this before I nearly punched him or Dimitri was ordered to rescue me. "So my dress gets a metaphor, but my body doesn't?"

Down my ear someone scoffed.

"Your body needs no metaphor to dress it up. It's more beautiful than anything."

I let some mischievousness enter my eyes. Honestly, screwing around with this scumbag's head it wasn't too hard. "So why did my dress get the first compliment?"

"You –" he snapped his mouth shut. "I –"

I laughed. So did the female guardian watching the CCTV monitors. I later learned she was called Phoebe. "Oh if everyone could see this!" she chortled.

"Carry on," I said to Alexi. "Save yourself."

He spun me on the spot a few times. I effortlessly kept up with him, even when the dance got quicker.

"I have a system," he announced.

"Oh how romantic," Phoebe sighed not at all meaning it. I worked to keep a straight face.

"Slow and methodical?" I asked.

"Jasmine!" Dad gasped.

Alexi looked very interested.

"Oh, keep your hair on I was joking," I said for the benefit of both of them.

"Allow me to persuade you," Alexi said. "I start complimenting what the beautiful woman has made a conscious effort to choose – her dress, her purse, her hair style. Then I talk about the brightness in her eyes, the soft curve of her waist and hips," he trailed his hand down my side too slowly for comfort. I really wanted to punch him. "The delicate shape of her face, her… _goddess_ lips."

Ok, I knew I'd spent some time on the lipstick, but I hadn't made that much of an effort. "And then?" I asked in a light voice because I was nearly giggling with the hilarity of all of this. Oh he was in for a shock. He was in for a shock as soon as he stopped looking at my chest. I was going to do more than punch him in a minute. My hand was itching to reach for the gun.

He finally dragged his eyes up to mine. He held me closer and either he had a gun in his pocket or he was doing some serious fantasising in his head. I very nearly threw up. "We go somewhere," he whispered in my ear.

Ok, I had to give it to him because with that tone of voice he could have dragged me anywhere he pleased and do whatever he wanted, if he were anyone else.

I played it flustered for a moment and then turned to him. Our lips were less than an inch apart and he was looking at me with worshipful adoration. I looked at him for a moment. "And if I say no?"

He almost stopped dancing. I pulled him around with me for a beat and turned when he forgot to turn me. As I turned I shared a triumphant look with Dimitri and dealt with Phoebe howling with laughter down my ear. I also looked at the crowd. Everyone looked content enough to me. I spun back into Alexi's arms and we carried on waltzing. There wasn't much of the dance left.

"Do I know you?" he asked.

"Perhaps," I evaded.

"You seem familiar. Too familiar."

"Well… We do go to the same school."

He gasped and tried to step away. Even though I was shorter than him and had a smaller frame I managed to pull him towards me. I whispered in his ear.

"If you speak to me or any of my friends like that I will chop your dick off, broil it in a stew and then feed it to you."

The music ended. I curtsied and then walked off leaving him humiliated on the dance floor. I wasn't sure where the humiliation in your partner walking off came from, but that was what I'd been told it would look like if one of the dance partners simply walked off like that.

Once again Phoebe was laughing too loudly and a bunch of other people were laughing too. I walked over to Dimitri and resisted the urge to give him a high five. He grinned at me.

"Mission accomplished," I joked.

"You are in higher spirits than when I last saw you," a voice said.

Dimitri and I both turned to it and knelt for a moment because it was the queen.

"One of the benefits a party dress has on a woman, Your Majesty," I replied.

She was in a blood red dress that looked more expensive than Dad's house because of all the diamonds sewn onto it. She was wearing her crown too. "You look beautiful, Ma'am."

"Remember your cover, guys," Phoebe said.

"We must have an early lunch together tomorrow," the queen said. Ok, if I hadn't been wearing a mask everyone would have seen my eyes pop out of my head. "I'll ask for you after the morning council meeting, how's that?"

"Sounds perfect, Your Majesty," Dimitri said.

"Good. Well, I'm going to retire for the evening. In my recent experience it is after midnight that the party gets into full swing and I'd rather not be a part of it."

We bowed again and she swept past.

"I suppose we'll have to cancel our lunch reservations," Dimitri unhelpfully said.

"Yeah, guess so," I said feeling just as bewildered as him.

The party lasted until well after dawn. Still not getting the significance of it I trudged back to Dad's with Dimitri.

"Do we really have to go to lunch with her?" I asked him.

"I doubt it. She was helping us maintain our cover," he shrugged.

I yawned.

"Surprise!" someone yelled and jumped in front of us.

I jumped back ready to defend myself but only saw the Ivashkov kid from earlier stood in the middle of the pavement.

"Does your mother know where you are?" I asked.

"I escaped," he shrugged.

"Come on," Dimitri said and grabbed his arm.

"What are you doing?"

"Taking you home," we said together and marched him back to his house.

His mother was frantically looking for him again. As soon as she saw him her face set to stone and he gulped.

"Adrian, get inside the house. Now," she enunciated. "Or you're going to be schooled here instead of in Montana."

He hurried inside.

She followed him without saying a word to us. We were too tired to be bothered by it and headed back towards Dad's house again.

* * *

**I really hope you like this chapter. Did the sleazyness of Alexi come off well? Please review and let me know! **

**If I don't get a chance to update tomorrow (I really will try to UD but my mother always has some crazy plan up her sleeve!) I hope all of you who celebrate have a merry Christmas and a happy new year! If you don't celebrate I hope you have a good day and stay safe. I'll be back updating for sure by either the 2nd January or the 3rd, it just depends how shattered I am and how I deal with the time zone change. I will most likely change my pic to something from Russia (I am so ridiculously excited it's unbelievable. I'm more excited about this trip than Christmas, I'm not kidding!) **

**Before I ramble some more...**

**VA belongs in it's entirety to Richelle Mead, who is awesome incarnate.**


	17. Chapter 17

**I'm back! Russia was absolutely AMAZING! There wan't any snow which was a shame, but it was brilliant! If you've seen the new year celebrations on the news the group I was with might be on it. We were the ones singing songs and doing the okey-pokie (like the okey-kokey for those if us in the UK, just the Australian/New Zealand version). I went round St. Basil's (oooh yeah) **

**Anyway, before I go on - a new super long chapter. I hope you like it. **

Well, we didn't get lunch with the queen, but we didn't expect to either. She was just helping us maintain our cover which was more than she had to. When it was time to leave the next day I didn't get a chance to say bye to Dad as he was busy doing his guardian thing. I knew that was how this world worked, but it still wasn't fair. Dimitri put an arm around me and smiled a little. I smiled too because I knew I'd see him again fairly soon.

* * *

Then field placements ended and soon the end of the school year was upon us and the dawning day of our Trials was upon us.

Inna and I woke early and dressed in workout clothes. For some reason we put our favourite gym clothes on. She was in black joggers and a red top with a Russian slogan on it from one of their cartoons. I was in grey joggers and a grey _Sesame_ _Street_ t-shirt which had a picture of _Animal_ on it and the phase "muh nom min uh!" on the front in bright yellow on the front and "dooo dooo do-do do" on the back. It was cheesy and no one over here seemed to understand it, but it was a lucky t-shirt and I loved it.

We met Dimitri on the way to the canteen and already we were focusing, thinking about what was to come. Stiva and Ivan met us in the canteen, already sat at the table. Ivan kissed my cheek as soon as I sat next to him.

"How are you all feeling?" he asked well aware how important this was to us all.

"I don't want to talk about it," Inna said as she shredded her croissant.

"Not too bad," Dimitri and Stiva said at the same time.

I just shrugged and opened my yoghurt which spat at me. Stiva, Dimka and Inna laughed which broke their tension. Ivan turned my head and with his finger took a splodge of yoghurt off my face and then stuck it in his mouth. I rolled my eyes and wiped the rest off with his shirt.

"Hey!" he protested. "I'm meeting your parents today!"

"Coulda dressed up for it," I scoffed with a laugh.

He looked at his shirt for a moment and then looked up at me looking panicked. "I thought it would be alright since he's a guardian she she's an alchemist! You really don't think its ok?"

"Ivan –"

"I can change it if you –"

"Eeeeve," I pressed because that always made him shut up. "Your shirt's fine. I was joking."

He sighed in relief and got some of his colour back.

I laughed. "You're more worried about this than we are about our Trials!"

"Your dad's a guardian! For the queen! And your mum's –"

"Trained in several basic forms of self defence and can use a gun," I shrugged.

He paled again which told me I really shouldn't have told him about that. Since his parents had disinherited him because he'd fallen for a Dhampir he'd been really nervous about meeting Mum and Dad in case he wasn't good enough for them either. I really wanted to tell him that he was being stupid about it, but I guessed your own parents disowning you had to give you some insecurities. He'd cried on me for days when he was told he wasn't allowed to attend his older sister's wedding. They were as close as Dimka and Viktoria. Since then his sister had come over to see him and she and her husband – a common moroi – were fine with him being with me. At least someone in his family was talking sense.

"You look fine," I said soothingly. "And the yoghurt will break the ice and make them laugh." I kissed him briefly.

He put his arm around me and kept me close for as long as he could. No one was really all that talkative amongst the senior novices making breakfast quieter than usual. We were all too focused and wrapped up in our own worlds.

Together we walked down to the stands with our moroi friends with us. Ivan held my hand the whole way and began whispering words of encouragement. I didn't bother translating them; just his voice was soothing enough. When we got there he stood in front of me.

"Breathe," he said in English which was rare for him since he wasn't all that confident with it. "And focus. And… kick ass?"

I smiled. "I'll kick ass, yeah," I said and kissed him.

"Good luck."

As soon as it turned nine-'o'-clock the first name was called. It was Inna. She squeaked because we'd been thinking that these were alphabetical selections, but apparently not unless they were going backwards. We wished her luck and then waited.

After five people went Stiva, Dimka and I got bored of waiting in silence and quietly talked over techniques. About an hour later Stiva was called forward. As he was going Dimka and I listened just like we had done for Inna. The crowd cheered a lot and there were 'ooooh's and 'aaaahhh's every now and then, but it all sounded generally positive.

After that the numbers in the little hut began to dwindle and we both got fidgety. We agreed that it might be a good idea to do one of the line warm ups we did for basic defence and the few other people in the hut joined in. They slowly left.

When it was just the two of us in the hut we stopped and listened. Once again the crowed was going nuts. Then it went silent.

"Who do you think?" I asked.

"No idea," he said. "They're doing it at random."

We waited another few moments which seemed like hours.

"Dimitri Belikov!" Guardian Moiseyev called.

"Good luck," I said and gave him a hug.

"You too."

He walked out there and people started cheering. I could clearly hear the voices of our friends which made me smile. We were all supposed to go and recover after our Trial, but we were a stubborn bunch who liked to support each other. At least they were all going to be there supporting me. I wished I could have seen all of them show off their skills, but I was so, so glad they would all be there to cheer me on.

I sat down and listened to the crowd's reaction to Dimitri which was what I expected – louder than any of the others even though they had to be tired. It was approaching dark and soon the floodlights would be on. I knew they were scheduled to come on at five, but a glance at my watch said it was already later than that, but it was slowly getting towards sunset and they weren't on.

I refused to worry about it. He was good enough. He wasn't going to be impeded by it. He'd be fine.

"Jasmine Cloud!" Guardian Moiseyev called.

I took a slow deep breath in, let it out just as slowly and then stood up.

The first thing that struck me was that the floodlights sill weren't on. I told myself I'd be fine. It wasn't dark yet. I walked to the middle of the arena and was told the basic rout of the course. I nodded and set to it. The first obstacle was a cargo net that was twelve feet in the air. If I fell off it I was technically dead. I managed to get that one over and done with no problem. I wasn't as agile as Dimitri on these, but I managed to get across which was all that mattered. After that I had to do a rope course and then there was a maze on the ground made out of wooden boards driven into the ground with huge stakes.

I absolutely hated mazes. I hated them as much as Inna hated, but wasn't afraid of, swimming. I made my way through it surprised that I hadn't been ambushed whilst in there.

Only, I was dragged back by a rope that was lassoed round my middle pinning my arms to my sides. I fumbled for the knife that was attached to my belt. When I had it in hand I turned round so that I could see where the rope was leading and cut it off. I shrugged out of the lasso trying to see who the person in the shadow was.

Before I could pinpoint his exact location the man stepped out. It was Arthur Schoenberg. He had a young dhampir with him and stepped back into the maze.

"Damn it," I swore and carefully followed.

But instead of going into the maze I climbed onto the top of it and slunk my away around for a few minutes while he got lost and then stopped in the only ambush site there was. The kid saw me and struggled, elbowing the guardian in the nuts. I jumped down just then and lunged in to stake him, but was tackled to the ground before I could from behind. The person had grabbed me round the ankles so I kicked whoever it was in the face. I jumped up and grabbed the kid's hand.

There was no way I could fight both of the 'strigoi' in there and keep her safe so I headed straight out of the maze and went around it pulling her after me. We seemed to have lost Schoenberg and his mate, but another guardian came upon us with a staff in his hand. I grabbed it before he could do anything with it and twisted it. Still running I managed to take it off him and then turn to face him. We were close to the stands. I really wanted to tell her to get in with the crowd, but that would be in equivalent of leaving her to fend for herself in this situation so I made sure she stayed behind me.

Without too much tactical thought I battled the guardian and took him down in a couple of moments. Then the other two appeared. I charged at Schoenberg first but then feinted and hit the other one round the head with the staff catching him off guard somehow. I staked him pretty quickly and then it was just me and Arthur Schenberg, the legend of modern times. He already had a Dimitri's foot shaped bruise on his arm, but I didn't go after that straight away. Instead I did a roundhouse kick spinning on the staff which I pressed into the floor to give me stability so I could put more force into it.

It knocked him off balance and winded him pretty effectively. I jabbed him in the stomach with the staff, but he caught hold of it and yanked me forwards. I kicked him in the side again and then aimed another one at his bruised arm. He winced so I did it again and then pulled on the staff.

But then I saw the kid walking towards another guardian/strigoi as if under compulsion. I kept a groan to myself and punched Schoenberg out cold and then staked him for good measure.

There was still a good distance between the kid and her strigoi so I took my time circling around another obstacle course bit and staked him from behind.

The kid grinned. "Go for the tall poles now."

I headed over there only to find that there were two guardians already up there. Typical. I hoped onto the first one with the staff still in hand. The guardian I was closest too was still facing in the opposite direction so I jabbed the back of his knee with it and then pushed him off. I hopped onto the next platform and that's when the other guardian noticed me. Moiseyev. And he had a gun.

I wondered what to do but he was getting closer to pulling the trigger. I threw the staff javelin style but I have no idea where it hit because I was already moving. I had two knives with me. One I threw so hard at the post he was stood on that it buried itself in up to the handle, but that was probably because it caught the grain and split the wood. The other I threw a little lower onto the post next to him. I pushed off on it with my foot, launched myself at the other knife which I grabbed with a hand, but my weight acted as a leaver and split the wood the rest of the way.

Moiseyev yelped and jumped off. I kept hold of the knife and let myself be lowered to the floor. As soon as I landed (amongst gasps and cheers) Moiseyev was running at me with the staff. I skipped back and rolled when he swiped at my head. I managed to pick up his gun and 'shot' him. It wouldn't do much to a strigoi true, unless he was newly awakened. He did stumble when the blank hit him in the arm. I took that to my advantage and got a few good punches in there and twisted the staff from his arms.

Whilst he was wide open I staked him and moved onto the next obstacle which was a rope ladder and bridge. I was attacked on the next few obstacles too but I don't really remember what happened. Only that I was suddenly told it was over.

I looked around just to make sure, but it must have been because everyone was on their feet going mad. Arthur Schoenberg walked over to me looking worse for wear, but with a smile on his face. He clamped his hand down on my shoulder and shook my hand.

"You and him… You're good. Real good," he said. "These bruises – I'll carry 'em with pride."

"Really?" I asked.

"Here," he pulled some water from the hand of the doctor and thrust it at me. "You look like you need it."

I gulped it down as I was guided back into the hut and then over to the dorms. Those of us who'd been in the last ten hadn't had showers yet so we flocked there and quickly washed so that we could get ready for the Promise Ceremony. I made sure that every single scrap of my hair was off my neck and put some smart clothes on. Then we all headed into the canteen which had been turned into an auditorium since morning. There were tiered seats and there was a dais at the front with stands on one side. In the middle there was a tattoo chair and equipment.

Whislt all of our parents and friends were getting seats we were put into alphabetical order and instructed where to stand on the stands once we'd been Promised. The girls who weren't graduating as guardians were to stand at the side on the less grand, but still raised dais.

Dimitri and I were first. We walked out there with our heads held high and buzzing with excitement and pride. We'd done it. Everything we were working towards for our entire lives was now over and we'd done it. We were going to graduate in just a few moments. This was it.

When everyone was stood in place Guardian Moiseyev stood at the lectern.

"Good evening all," he said with a smile. "I'm sure some of you know how this goes having been here before in recent years perhaps or remember yourselves standing up here where this year's novices stand eagerly awaiting their results, but…"

Oh he was going to torture us!

"This year I can honestly say has been one of the best for a very long time! All of us here are so proud of them all."

There was a cheer and applause from everyone watching. I looked at the back wall because if I found Mum I was _going_ to cry.

"We even managed to tempt Arthur Schoenberg out of Latvia to come and help us, though if he doesn't regret it now I think he may do so in the morning. He certainly took a couple of nasty kicks and punches out there."

People chuckled. Even Arthur himself.

"Now, before we get to the best bit let us take a moment to reflect upon this last year. Each and every student here has pushed themselves to get the marks they've received. There have been early mornings and late nights from them all, some had Field Placements they'd rather forget, others that were infinity more enjoyable – I'm sure the parents of the unlucky few who had tougher assignments heard about it and for that I apologise. But you have seen the outcome of their hard work today. And you should be proud.

"Soon many of the novices up here will have a moroi's life in their hands. They'll have a great responsibility in keeping them safe, but I know that they will do so. This class is the best we've seen in fifty years or more. I know I feel safer knowing that they'll be on the streets protecting everyone out there. For it is not just their charges they will protect, but anyone in danger from Strigoi. They'll launch themselves into battle without thinking about it, without thinking of the risk to their own lives. And isn't that a noble thing to be doing?"

Many people listening murmured agreements as if they were in church. I even found myself tearing up a little, but that was because the pride in his voice was evident.

"May we wish every single one of them the best luck they could have no matter what path they choose! I know I shall think of them often."

There was another enthusiastic round of applause which took a while to die down.

"Now!" he continued with gusto. "Allow me to proudly announce the scores. Dimitri Belikov!"

Dimitri immediately walked over to the lectern.

"Maths, Russian, English, Science – Grade One Passes. Guardian Theory – Grade One Star pass. Qualifier – Grade One Star pass. Field Placement – ninety seven out of one hundred. Trials – ninety nine out of one hundred and ten."

I gasped because they were the best scores I'd ever heard! They were phenomenal. His mother immediately cried and his sisters were all on their feet cheering, even his grandma looked excited.

He walked accepted his certificates with a huge smile and then reverently walked over to get his Promise Mark, still under the sound of cheers. When the mark was done he walked over to the stands with more applause following him. His sisters made a racket of their own and then sat down.

"Jasmine Cloud!" Moiseyev called.

My knees instantly went weak and I got butterflies, but I walked out there with my head high and with confident strides.

"Maths, Russian, Science – Grade One pass. English – Grade One Star pass. Guardian Theory – Grade One Star pass. Qualifier – Grade One Star pass. Field Placement – ninety seven out of one hundred. Trials – one hundred out of one hundred and ten."

I nearly fainted right there. I knew the level between Dimitri and me was impossibly close, but I never thought I'd beat him. I was more rough and raw. He was graceful and precise. I thought that was what had separated us. That's what made him better than me.

Bewildered I shook his hand and accepted my certificates.

"If I could have given you extra points for splitting that pole –"

"Woops," I sheepishly said.

"I would have."

I laughed.

"Go and get your Promise Mark."

I didn't need telling twice and grinned before going over there. The closer I got though the more sober I got and the smile faded. I had done it. I was about to be given my Promise Mark and I was about to have someone's life in my hands. I sat down grateful that the chair was there.

Getting the tattoo didn't hurt as much as I expected, but it wasn't comfortable either. When I was allowed to look at it with the use of a couple of mirrors I softly gasped. I'd really done it. I was a _Guardian_.

I nodded before I could cry and walked over to the stand to stand next to Dimitri, my best friend. He was the first novice I'd spoken to over here. I'd met him by crashing into him outside the headmaster's office and we'd been stuck together, nigh on inseparable ever since. He caught my eye before I stood in place and pride shone in his too. Then I turned to face the front with my hands clasped behind my back and looked to the back of the room.

I didn't really hear any other scores until Stiva's were called.

"Maths, Russian, English, Science – Grade One pass. Guardian Theory – Grade One pass. Qualifier – Grade One pass. Field Placement – eighty nine out of one hundred. Trials – ninety out of one hundred and ten."

They were brilliant too! Well above average. I chanced a look at him as he took his results from Moiseyev and he was grinning like a fool.

Then Inna's were called out. She was last.

"Maths, Russian, Science – Grade One Star pass. English – Grade Two Star pass. Qualifier – Grade One Star Pass. Field Placement – ninety out of one hundred. Trials – ninety one out of one hundred and ten."

She shook his hand looking like she was in shock and then looked at the tattoo chair. She asked Sir a question and then walked over there.

In shock the whole hall stopped cheering and applauding as she sat down. The tattooist looked shocked too, but got his equipment back out.

First of all Dad started clapping. Then Mum and the Belikovs, then Inna's family and soon the whole place was cheering her on. I wanted to cheer too, but none of the other novices were. We were guardians we were supposed to be stoic.

When she took her place squeezing in on the bottom row people cheered again. When they died down a camera man came out and took a couple of very official looking photos. Then he said we could make faces and things and stand with our friends. Dimitri and I made our way down to Inna as she made her way up.

"I did it!" she beamed at us. "I did it!"

"We had no idea!"

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"You shouldn't have rushed into it!"

"I'm so proud of you!"

"She's been thinking about it for a while," Stiva said when he made his way over to us. "She thought you two would think she was being stupid."

"We'd never think that!" we both said.

"Excuse me you four," the photographer said.

We turned to him looking surprised because we'd forgotten he existed then he took the photo. We looked around and saw that everyone was either looking impatiently at us or mumbling amongst themselves about us talking and making far too much noise or gesturing to us.

"Sorry, but that was too good to resist. You can have a copy of that for free. Now, one with everyone posed?"

We all quickly got into poses and pulled faces.

"Good, now. Shall we let the novices… _guardians_ change into something more comfortable before the celebrations begin?" Moiseyev asked.

Taking that as a dismissal we headed back to the dorms while everyone else went to various party rooms. As soon as I had shut the bedroom door I walked over to Inna took her brush from her.

"Why didn't you tell us?" I asked.

She looked to the floor. "I really did think you'd think I was being stupid and I wasn't sure I'd get good enough scores."

"Inna, we'd never call you stupid and we would have helped you. We would have let you join in with our running and stuff even if you just wanted to! Why would you think we'd put you down?"

"But you're both so good!" she protested.

"But we don't gloat about it, Inna!" I exclaimed. "Oh my god, I can't believe you'd think that about us!"

"Ok, ok!" she surrendered with a laugh. "Don't pull a what-you-did-to-Tasha on me!"

"I didn't do anything to Tasha," I frowned.

"She told me last night that she heard what you said the night you and Ivan got together."

I sighed in irritation and incredulity. "I only meant that she had better apologise."

"Well, talk to her today, alright?"

I gave her the brush back. "Ok. Now, my green dress or my short black one?"

"We're going to be wearing black often enough now," she said with a grin. "Go for green."

I pulled it on when I was behind the wardrobe door so that she could get dressed at the same time. She was in a shorter white party dress. She put matching heels on but I stuck with flats because my ankle was starting to ache.

"Actually, I think I like your idea better," she said and took her heels off. Her knee was a shade of black which explained her change in footwear.

Together we met Stiva and Dimitri in the commons. Ivan was with them. I grinned and ran over to him. He caught me in his arms and spun me round whilst peppering my face with kisses between words.

"You… bloody… fantastic… woman… you!" he grinned.

I twined my hands in his hair and rested my forehead on his. "I did it, Ivan!" I whispered.

He laughed and said, "Of course you did. I'm so proud of you."

He kissed me gently but soundly.

"I've already had this from Jazz, Dimka! And I'm about to get it from Mum! Stop it!" Inna snapped.

Ivan and I looked round. Inna was doing a good job of staring Dimitri down and he was looking a little bit frightened. Stiva was watching with interest.

"Perhaps I should show you to the party," Ivan said and put me down.

"Yeah," Inna huffed and turned away from Dimka. "Good idea."

Ivan and I gave each other 'oh dear' looks. He turned to lead the way not letting go of my hand. I held it just as tightly and held his arm too. I was well aware that in a few days we'd both be at court and I'd have a room to myself which I could share with him. We hadn't even shared a bed yet.

We hurried to the party room. Ivan insisted on flinging the doors open for us and then stepping aside. All of our families were in there which made it quite a number. Dimitri's family was there, Inna had a few younger siblings and Stiva did too, and they both had aunts and cousins abound. We all grinned and the others gravitated towards their families.

"Jasmine?" Mum asked from behind me.

I spun round. "Mum!" I squealed and threw my arms around her.

She was crying along with me and kept on repeating how proud she was. I was just crying because it was so good to see her again. It had been over an entire year since I'd seen her.

"Oh, Jazz," Mum sighed and let go to look at me. She was grinning and crying all at the same time. "I knew you'd do it. _I'm so proud_."

That had me crying all over again and I hugged her as tightly as I could without strangling her. She hugged me back just as tightly and then passed me over to Dad. He just grinned and hugged me.

"I told you you'd be better than me," he said.

That was the biggest bit of praise he could have possibly given me. "Thanks for everything, Dad."

"Anything, Kid."

I laughed. "That's Guardian Kid now."

He laughed too and kissed the side of my head. "Now," he said and held me at arm's length. "This boyfriend of yours."

I bit my lip. Especially when he turned serious.

"Any man," he said. "Who lets his girl wipe yoghurt on their _silk_ shirt sleeve and then meets her parents in it because she didn't seem concerned is definitely a man to be commended."

I smiled in relief. "You like him then?"

"I suppose he'll have to do if you're happy," he said lightly.

"I am," I said to him and Mum. "Really happy."

Mum was tearing up again. Ivan passed her a tissue. "Such a gentleman," she sniffed.

Dad held me to his side. "Now, Ivan Zveklos, you look after my daughter," he commanded. "And don't you dare break her heart or let anything happen to her. And if something scares her in the middle of the night –"

"I'll sort it, Dad," I said feeling mortified. "Because I'm the guardian out of the two of us."

Mum shot him a 'behave' look. He sighed and then smiled.

"Promise me you won't hurt her?"

"I'd promise that a thousand times, Guardian Dimitrivic," he said so solemnly I nearly melted.

Even Dad looked impressed. "Well, then…"

"Oh say it, Nikolai, you know you want to," Mum said with a sigh and a wry smile.

Dad smiled. "Welcome to the family, son."

Ivan's eyes went wide and I could swear I saw a tear or two fill them. I grinned and Dad let me go. I took the two steps it took to stand in front of Ivan and kiss him again. Before I could kiss him though he wrapped me up in a hug and squeezed tightly. I knew what this meant to him after his family disowned him. He just wanted to be accepted for who he was. I wondered where his sister, the one who didn't have her head stuck up her arse was. Her name was Kitty and she, like most moroi women, was beautiful according to her photo, but apparently the photo didn't do her justice. I really wish she could have been here, Ivan would have been grinning the whole time, but apparently something had come up.

"I'm going to get us all drinks," Ivan announced and hurried off.

"Thank guys," I smiled to my parents. "After his family disowned him…"

"We'd be hypocrites if we shunned him," Mum said softly. "I'm glad you're happy."

I smiled. "You – urk!"

"Dimitri's mum is taking a photo," Inna said and pulled me across the room. "Where are your papers?"

"I left them in our room."

She sighed and grabbed a random piece of paper from one of the tables. It was plain on one side but had a photo on the other. I didn't see what the photo was before she rolled it up and put it in my hands. We had he photo taken a bunch of times so that every family gathered had a copy of it, then we posed by the window individually, I also had one with Iva, and then we posed with our families.

After that we had lunch and sat talking to one another. Dad, of course, pounced on Ivan with questions.

"Where do you plan on living?" he asked.

Ivan shrugged. "Depends where Jazz goes. I mean, she has orders to follow. I don't. I'll get us a house close to whoever she's guarding."

"Are you going to work?"

"Dad, stop it," I said sternly.

"It's fine," Ivan smiled. "I'll find something wherever we go."

"Even if it's cleaning public toilets?"

"Floor, please swallow me whole," I said.

"Ivan!" an unfamiliar voice called.

He immediately grinned and turned from Dad for stood in the doorway was his sister. She had luscious, chocolaty hair that fell in a cascade down to her shoulders, huge brown eyes smiled as much as her full, heart shaped lips. She was about as tall as me, but was wearing heels. They were gorgeous leather boots that reached her knees and she was in jeans, a nice blouse and a cardigan.

She and Ivan hugged for a few moments and she seemed to be comforting him. I was glad she was here, he needed someone to stick by his side. They were speaking in quick Russian which I still had a job understanding. I felt tears in my eyes too but quickly blinked them away when Ivan turned to us.

"This is Jazz," he proclaimed to Kitty.

I held out my hand. "Nice to meet you."

She smiled and delicately shook it. "I've heard a lot about you."

"Me too. This is my mum, Carol, and my dad Nikolai," I introduced. "Kitty is Ivan's sister."

They all shook hands.

"So you work in Idaho, right?" I asked. "In the huge ski resort?"

"Yeah," she smiled. "I got made restaurant manager a couple of days ago."

"That's great!" Ivan exclaimed. "Why didn't you say?"

She shrugged. "I was keeping it as a surprise. You should all come over when you can. I can get a great deal for you."

"I wish I could," Dad said. "But I guard the queen. She takes a three day winter break every year though so maybe one year."

Kitty looked impressed.

"And I'd get sent to re-education if they found out I was willing going," Mum sighed. "I had to invent a reason to come here."

"Oh, right. That's a shame, you'd really love it."

"We'll come," Ivan said.

"Of course you'll come. I've got a job for you there if you want it."

"I'm sticking with Jazz," he said and put an arm round my waist. "Oh, don't go and look disappointed."

"What if you both requested her?" Dad asked. "If Ivan gets her, he can have the job. If you get her, Kitty, Ivan will have to move up with her."

I smiled slyly. It was an elegant solution.

"Yeah!" he grinned. "We'll both request Dimitri too!"

"Is he good?"

"He got ninety nine on for his trials," he said a little dismissively since he had expected his best friend to get a really high score. "Jazz got one hundred."

Her eyes bugged out of her face. "I'll definitely make sure the boss requests you. We've got a couple of spots open."

"This is like black bead all over again," I muttered to the floor.

"What on earth are you on about, Jasmine?" Mum asked.

Ivan, I could tell, was smiling. He called Dimitri over and explained what had been discussed.

"Just like the black bread," he murmured in amusement.

"_Well_?" Ivan demanded.

"I'd be happy to guard the resort," he said.

"Excellent," Kitty smiled. "Now, how has my baby brother been treating you?" she asked me.

Ivan groaned. I laughed and answered her question.

* * *

**Ok, so when I was reading FB on St. Petersburg I realised that Tasha is 7 years older than Dimitri... Errr, oops. Normally I remember stuff like that. I guess you'll just have to go with it? Man I feel like an idiot... **

**Anyway, I hope you like this chapter. Please, please, please review! **

**VA belongs to Richelle Mead. **


	18. Chapter 18

**Hi everyone! Sorry it's taken me 10 days to UD, internet issues. I think my computer is having a strop that it didn't come to Russia too and is making life difficult :( Anyway, new chapter. Please read the A/N at the end, I have a question for you which is really important.**

* * *

A couple of days later we were at court. I'd said a quick bye to Mum since neither of us were good at goodbyes, and I really didn't know when I was going to see her again. Dad though was another matter. For the next two weeks I was going to be able to see him every day if I wanted to. As soon as we landed he pulled me away from the other novices, pulled Ivan too and began to walk towards his house. I figured I'd be staying in guest housing, but now I didn't have a choice but to see him every day.

Ivan grinned and pulled his stuff along. Dad was carrying some of his things too. When he'd arrived at school after the summer he'd assumed he'd still have a huge house to go back to and so had brought a lot of stuff. Now though he was, without Dad, homeless. I managed all of mine well enough since I was used to carrying it about alone. It was nice to be making the trip with someone for once. We put most of his boxes on the landing but the suitcase and TV we put in my room.

"Remember you've got that greeting party at ten," Dad said.

"Yeah, yeah, my fate's all but sealed," I said.

"Don't take that for granted. You and Dimitri might get split up yet," he warned.

And for some reason that made me panic a little inside. No, I was fine. He was my best friend. I didn't need him there for me to do my job.

"Your uniform's in the box at the bottom of your wardrobe. I thought you might like to open it yourself. I've got to go to work. I'll see you later."

"Bye," I said.

Ivan and I stayed stood here we were in the middle of the room until we heard the front door close. Then I realised that we were in the same bedroom for the first time ever. Then I began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Ivan asked.

"The last time I was in this room I had to share it with Dimka," I said.

He got a dark, jealous look. "He better have slept on the floor."

I rolled my eyes. It never ceased to amaze me how jealous he could be of our best friend. "Of course he slept on the floor. He was even more determined to after I protested."

"Good."

I shook my head at him and lay down on the bed. "Set the alarm would you?"

"When for?" he asked and reached over to the clock on the bed side table.

"Nine."

He fiddled with it for a couple of moments and then carefully lay down next to me. I looked over and smiled a little. He smiled too.

"Who'da thought you'd graduate, huh?" I asked.

He raised an eyebrow and loftily said, "I'll have you know I studied hard."

"The night before the exam?"

"Exactly," he smiled. "I still got top… nearly top grades. You should be proud."

"I am," I said and leaned over to kiss him.

It felt perfectly natural that he put his arm around my waist and pull me closer, even more natural still when he slowly eased my t-shirt over my head and then pulled a condom from his back pocket.

"I managed to sneak it passed both of you," he smirked.

"Dad and I must be terrible guardians," I joked.

* * *

"Hurry up, Ivan," I told him for the millionth time.

"There's twenty minutes before you have to leave," he complained.

"Dimitri will be here in a minute with Stiva and Inna," I pointed out.

"How do you know?" he asked incredulously as he did something with his hair in front of the mirror.

"Because it's _Dimitri_," I said.

"He doesn't even know we're here!"

I sighed and huffed. "Well I'm not in guest housing and he knows where the house is. Of course he's going to come and –" there was a knock at the door. "See."

I went down stairs and yanked the door open. "Ivan's taking for ever," I said.

"That's why we can early," Inna said from behind Dimitri. "I know you hate waiting for him. Why didn't you make him get ready earlier?"

"He was sleeping when I got out of the shower at seven," I said.

We'd arrived in the middle of the afternoon and he'd been asleep since about five. I'd slept for a couple of hours and then got bored lying in bed with him even though we were naked and had a film of sweat covering each of us.

"Alright, I'm coming!" he muttered and hurried down the stairs.

I felt my heart thud a little harder than usual when I saw him, but instead of his hand instantly finding mine he stopped on the bottom step looking at the for of us.

"You guys look…"

We smiled. We were all in our official uniforms and were proud to be wearing them. When I put mine on I'd felt my heart swell and a grin crack across my face. We were all guardians.

Ivan picked up the camera from the phone table and took a photo. Then he stepped out of the door. I pulled it closed and locked it and then we walked over to the palace.

"So, where are we all meeting up later?" Inna asked.

"What for?" Stiva asked.

"Drinks. You know, the traditional I'm a guardian let's celebrate drink," she replied as if he should have known that was what she was on about.

"There's this nice looking bar in the middle of the social quarter," Ivan said. "Denis and Kitty used to go there sometimes. I can get us a table while you're doing your thing."

"Are we really going to need a table?" she asked.

"If you want to eat."

"Table," the four of us said together.

He chuckled.

We got to the palace a few moments later and we all signed in and picked up silver badges with our names printed on the front. Ivan walked straight up to the request station and filled in a form. Then he winked over at us and walked straight back out.

We stood in the room for a few hours talking to all kinds of royals and important people, but none of them really grabbed my attention until Darya Ivashkov walked over to me.

"Hello," she said.

"Uh, hi," I managed to reply because, I think, she was being civil. "You… having fun?"

"I'm requesting you," she kind of blurted out but managed to make it elegant.

"What?" I asked a little too loudly. "Why?"

"You're good," she said.

"Oh."

"Well don't look happy about it," she glowered.

I plastered a smile on my face. She just scowled and marched off. I stared after her in bewilderment. I really hoped I didn't get put with her.

A couple of weeks later we all got given our assignments. Inna was going back to Russia to guard one of the Taruses in Moscow, Stiva was going to Vladivostok to guard one of the popular night clubs there. Dimitri and I were off to Idaho. I was going to guard the resort, but Ivan was going to be working there so it was practically the same thing. Dimitri was his official guardian. I was just happy that I knew he was going to be in good hands if he had to go away for a day or two for a business trip. We drove out the same day.

It wasn't a painful goodbye with Dad since he'd managed to persuade the queen to make her winter holiday there so I was going to be seeing him in a few months. Mum as being moved back to England soon, close to where she grew up in Edinburgh. I wasn't going to see her for a while, but she told me she lived next door to a Conta Lady who had a couple of guardians and the wards stretched around her house too.

When Ivan, Dimka and I arrived at the resort Kitty warmly greeted us and got us into a Land Rover with all of our things and drove to the back of the resort and a little way away down a narrow road. There were trees on all sides and they were densely packed until we began to see chimneys and steeply pitched roofs through them. Then a clearing opened out and small log houses, chalets I supposed, were dotted around.

"This is the staff quarter," Kitty said. "That one's mine and Dav – I told Kim to put that bike away before they left. It's her first year at St. Vladimir's."

"How was she when they left?" Ivan asked Kitty.

"She was more excited than anything," she shrugged. "What we expected. Dave's staying overnight and is taking a slow trip back. He's meeting up with some old friends in various places along the way. Remember Alison?"

"I always got her and Harriet mixed up."

"How? Alison's dhampir."

Dimitri and I laughed.

"And you proclaimed your love for Harriet the first time you saw her."

"Awwww," I laughed. "Can't have made much of an impression."

"They were near identical half sisters!" he protested in a high pitch.

"Well, anyway, Alison's adopted her charge's son. He was killed, she nearly was too. Strigoi attack a few months ago. She's still recovering. I think Dave's going to spend a week with her to help her get on her feet properly. They're travelling back from Montanna together, he's going to pick her up."

"Jealous?" he asked.

"Of the road trip, yes," she sighed. "I love my job, but I miss travelling. Here we are. I managed to get you pretty close to each other. Dimitri, that's yours. Number twenty eight. Ivan, Jazz, thirty one."

They were about fifty yards from one another and were on the edge of the housing area. All the staff lived on site so there were quite a few houses and there was a small shop too. It was like a really small village. We all smiled at each other.

Together we got out and took all of our things to our hoses. Mine and Ivan's was a bungalow instead of a two story like Dimka's, but I think Kitty was thinking about the possibility of tiny feet padding around soon. The walls and floor were all made of smooth wood and there were already photos of Ivan and Kitty together on some of the walls. The lounge was furnished with green sofas and a chair, set around the fire place which was made up but not lit.

The main corridor led to the kitchen to the right. It was a little on the small side, but that was fine since there was room for a small table in the corner. It had modern appliances and the view into the forest was beautiful. There were a couple of shovels discreetly placed by the door which made me smile. At least we were prepared.

The bedrooms were the other side of the house. There was a nice bathroom between them and the first was currently set up with a single bed and a chest of drawers. The main room was a lot different. The ceiling beams were still exposed and the huge window that the bed faced was looking out to the forest and the waterfall which was cascading down the mountain side. There was a thick rug on the floor and a fire place was on the wall opposite the one with the wardrobes and chest of drawers. The bed was made up with a few decorative pillows and dark red sheets.

We grinned at each other. Home.

* * *

**Ok, the obvious filler chapter is over (thank god!) my question: I have one more very short scene of Jazz/Ivan/Dimitri (like 200 words if that) before the inivitable part of Ivan being killed. So do you want a few more than that or not? I do have a few things in mind for those chapters, but if they don't get written time will be skipped to the VA series time and Jazz and Dimitri meeting up a couple of times. Please answer this question! **

**Aside from that, I hope you like this chapter adn leave a review! **

**Once again I'm so sorry that it's take me so long to UD. Honestly, assuring my friends and family that I got back alive after smuggling vodka passed the army, police, metal detectors and sniffer dogs into Red Square for the New Year fireworks had to come first. Seriously, I've had five minutes of spotty internet at a time at best!**

**VA belongs to Richelle Mead **

**I finally read _The Fiery Heart!_ **


	19. Chapter 19

**Huge thank you to MeiMew for your review of the last chapter, you sure do know how to keep a girl motivated! Here's a chapter for you! **

* * *

After a night in with Ivan in our very own house, I got up early, a few hours before the sun set so I could meet the head guardian here. Dimitri got to my house a little before I was ready and quietly let himself in. I was in the kitchen making a bacon sandwich when he said hi.

"Want one?" I asked.

"Just ate."

"Coffee?"

"No thanks. You ready for this?" he asked.

I put my roll on a plate and sat at the table with him. Aside for the food in front of me we were as close to mirror image as we could be. Both of us were in our uniforms, both looking serious. At the same time though we both had ways of rebelling just as little – Dimitri had his long hair and a long coat. My hair was in the typical pixie cut most women guardians had, but on the left, just behind my ear was a long, but thin plait. On my right arm just below the sleeve of my blouse I had the words 'May fortune carry you forward, May hope be a blessing in your life, Don't hesitate' written in Russian cursive and made a ring around my arm. We were also both excited.

This was it. The moment we'd trained our while lives for. We were about to begin our first day of work, of guarding. Whilst here Ivan wouldn't need Dimitri to be around all the time, so we were going to be working in a huge team all the time which wasn't quite what either of us had imagined. We'd both imagined doing nothing but pair guarding. This was just as good though. All that honestly mattered was that we were on the job together with Ivan.

"Please, I was born ready," I said.

Dimitri just rolled his eyes. I quickly finished my roll and tea knowing that he was getting impatient – he always had to be doing something – and then pulled my own coat on. Sure it was summer, but we were in the mountains and it was a little chilly. It was a navy blue trench which was longer at the back than the front, bitted at the top, but more like a party dress below the waist. The edges were all trimmed in white, the buttons matched and there was a high collar. When I was on duty I wouldn't be using the lower buttons all that much so that I could have easy access to my stake and equipment belt. But right now it brought a touch of femininity to my otherwise male orientated job.

"When did you get that?" Dimitri asked.

"I guess Mum put it in my suitcase," I shrugged. "Nice, huh?"

"Yeah," he agreed and opened the door for me.

We headed out following the road back to the huge resort. It was three stories high with a basement and probably an attic too. I'd never been inside, but I'd heard stories. It was supposed to be like a palace on the inside – high ceilings, extravagant decoration, plush carpets, artwork, chandeliers the lot. Each room had a balcony, there were ball rooms, lounges, game rooms, there was an ice rink and from what I'd heard an actual theatre, cinema rooms and bars as well as a couple of different restaurants.

When we got inside through the much less grand staff entrance we didn't see all that. The walls were white and the floor was some kind of hard surface and bright blue dimmed by dust and footprints. A sign at the end of this corridor pointed right to the kitchen where the blue floor continued and left to the guardian offices where the floor changed to a hard wearing carpet. We followed the signs to our boss's office. The walls changed to an off white with photos of the scenery on the walls.

Our boss was a man called Bernardo Napoleone.

"Na poh le oh nee," I pronounced for Dimitri. "I know a Napoleone when I was at the school in Italy. I don't know if she went to the same one, but of she did she went to one that specialises in training Dhampirs. Lac Gois… something or other or something. I never was all that good at Italian. Anyway, they hate being called Napoleon."

"Right," he said and rapped his knuckles on the door.

"Si," came the instant reply in a bass voice.

Dimitri opened the door, once again letting me in first. Napoleone was a tall, but thin man in his fifties with greying hair and dark eyes. He was dressed in uniform too, but had thrown his jacket over the back of his chair. His less formal shirt (short sleeves) revealed the same tattoo as the one I had.

"May favour carry your forward," he said to me in Italian.

"May hope be a blessing in your life," I replied, also in Italian. It was a little pretentious and cliquey, but it was a standard greeting people who went to that school gave each other when they first met. Even if you didn't graduate from that school you were entitled to use it and get the tat, so long as you'd attend for at least one full year. I'd made sure to learn at least that in Italian and with a perfect accent. It was the only all Dhampir school in the world and the training programme was the best there was. I still kept in loose contact with some of the people who'd been in my classes whilst I was there.

Dimitri just looked between us in confusion. I introduced him and we were invited to sit. Tea was passed around. I nursed my hands around the cup, but didn't drink much through the whole meeting.

"We weren't actually expecting you until early this morning and I was going to do this later, but since you're here I can take a break from this paperwork," Napoleone said in perfect English with a perfect accent. I remembered that from when I was at the school. It was where I began to learn Russian and Romanian. The tutors had been viciously strict about having the correct accent too. I supposed it had something to do with possible future espionage. "I've got your schedules typed up for you," he passes us manila folders, "and a list of future events you're going to be guarding – a couple of balls, a conference that kind of thing."

I found the calendar and saw that there were events pencilled in for the whole winter season. The only ones I had to be in my 'smart unifrom' (the usual uniform but with a long sleeve blouse) for were highlighted. Dimitri and I glanced at each other. Then I turned to Napoleone.

"I take it you don't know about the Queen's winter plans?" I asked.

"No," he said with narrowed eyes demanding an explanation.

"My dad, Guardian Dimitrivic, is one of her guardians. He says that at present she plans to holiday here for a few days. I mean, I don't know how concrete it is, but I think that's the plan at the moment," I said.

He nodded already calculating and planning. "Given your joint history with her I'll want you both to be on guard if she throws a party."

"Of course," we both said at the same time.

He made a few notes on the back of an envelope and then turned back to us. "You've arrived in the off season, so we're working with a small guard force on duty at any one time. Mostly boarder patrol. There are only about twenty moroi on site and fewer feeders so you're only working six hours shifts. Normally it's eight. Everyone gets one day off a week. At the moment you have Tuesdays.

"We've got training facilities down here, a pool, everything they've got at the academies," he waved off. "You've both got appointments for physicals with the on site doctor. I know you've just done one, but she likes to do it, something to do with records not being enough," he rolled his eyes. "Half two I think, it's all in there. There's a lounge down the corridor, go read up. You've both got mid day shifts."

"Yes, Sir," we said and quietly left the room.

The lounge was a few doors down on the opposite side of the corridor. It was a little more cheerful than the office – it was pastel blue on one wall and there was a huge painting of the surrounding mountains on another wall. There were groups of sofas and chairs in the large space, some tables were doted around and in the back wall was an archway to a small kitchen.

Dimitri hit my arm a couple of times. "Is that Arthur Schoenberg?"

I followed his line of sight and saw the profile of the every man we'd studied at school. He was hunched over a coffee table looking at something, probably papers, with a woman with red, curly hair.

"Janine Hathaway," he said sounding slightly awestruck.

I felt exactly the same way too and for a moment couldn't really move. But then I realised that we were both standing there like idiots. I grabbed Dimitri's arm and steered him over to a couple of comfortable looking armchairs on the other side of the room.

"Hey, you two, what do you make of this Zeklos kid getting disowned for falling for one of us? It hit the paper," Arthur Schoenberg asked from across the room. "Errr… Ivan. Apparently he works here now."

I turned to him. "Well since I'm the Dhampir he fell for…"

Janine suddenly turned to look at me scrutinising me, my neck. I felt heat rise to my cheeks, not embarrassment but rolling anger. I felt Dimitri giving me a warning look, but there was no way anyone, not even _the_ Janine Hathaway was going to insinuate that Ivan would ever even suggest such a thing.

"He is nothing like that, Janine. But I supposed your experience was much different to mine, wasn't it?" I asked, sweetly towards the end. Sure she'd rebuilt her reputation and most people had forgotten about her roots and her early mishap with one particular Moroi man, but I hadn't. It was a real low blow, almost childish, but at that moment I didn't really care.

Dimitri gasped and hissed, "_Jasmine_!"

Her eyes narrowed she said, flatly, "You obviously don't know anything about Moroi men."

"No, because I never fooled around. But I know Ivan and what he's been through to be with me," I snapped.

"He will probably leave you yet even though he's here now. It won't last."

"Oh I'm sorry, who's the father of your child?"

Janine went red in the face, her fists clenched and she began to shake. I thought she was going to take a step forward, and then a bunch of steps forward to smack me in the face, but Arthur took control of the situation.

"Janine, she has a point. With moroi men each being different," he hurriedly said when he realised what his first comment sounded like. "You don't know the boy. And he is sticking by her side."

"Thank you," I pointedly said.

"You shouldn't have said the things you did either," he informed me with a disapproving look making me feel like I was four and being told of by a teacher.

"Fine," Janine said.

I wasn't going to say anything because what she'd said was most definitely not fine but the look Arthur was giving me had me nearly reduced to tears. But I would not cry. "Fine."

He turned Janine back to the newspaper which was when I remembered that it existed. Dimitri tried to turn me back to the chairs, but I went to the other side of the room and looked over their shoulders. It was an old paper dating back to when it had all first happened. I was tempted to grab the paper and rip it up, but then I realised that it was a pretty positive article.

"It's a new paper, one written by non-royals," Janine explained.

"Who's the editor in chief?" I asked.

"Some bloke called Ibrahim Mazur."

"Uh…" I said warily. "It's probably not just a paper then. He probably uses it to send cryptic gangster mob gang messages to his 'willing' 'employees'." I put more stress on the word employees. I had never met the man, but Mum had. It was about eleven years ago and she owed him some fort of favour. "Good article though."

I turned and headed back over to my chair.

"Do you honestly think arguing with Janine Hathaway is the best thing you could have done?" Dimitri hissed as soon as I sat down.

"Oh, you'd rather I stood there like you and let her insult him?" I snapped quietly back. "Thanks for the back up there."

I snatched my folder from the coffee table and used it to create a barrier between us.

The file wasn't really reading material, just details of our shifts, diagrams of different routs to take while on shift and stuff like that.

"Jazz," Dimitri eventually his and took the folder from me.

I sighed. "Ok, fine. Not angry anymore."

He frowned. "Really?"

I nodded. "Honestly, it was kind of scary."

"Well she's gone now."

I let out a breath I hadn't realised I was holding. Someone laughed. I looked to the sofa opposite me and Arthur was sat there. Wow, didn't I feel like a fool.

"She's not scary."

I snorted. "You can take her."

"Well, _Miss 100_, I'm pretty sure you can too. Anyway, she wouldn't have beet you up."

"No. She would have slayed me," I muttered. "Oh, hey, we're on duty together. Tomorrow at five."

"Watching over small conference," he nodded. "We should go sparring before, you too, Belikov. Janine might join us."

I gulped. "Is that a good idea?"

"Relax, kid. She won't punch you where she isn't supposed to."

"Dimitri Belikov?" someone called from the door.

"Yes?" he replied.

"Dave Tanner. We gotta go man."

He stood up and asked me, "Are we on for dinner still?"

"Yeah. No idea what Ivan's making though."

"Making?" he asked and looked like he was having second thoughts. "Well, I'll at least see you later even if we don't eat." He hurried out with his guarding partner. Normally people did rounds by themselves, but whilst we were both new we were going to be going with people. Just until we knew our way round.

"Ivan can't cook?" Arthur asked.

"He's in an experimenting mood," I said with a grimace. "He can do, you know, like, lasagna, curry and that kind of thing, but his experiments don't always turn out so good. According to the home ec' teacher anyway. And Kitty."

"Ah," Arthur nodded wisely as if he knew exactly what I was talking about. "Just hope now that he remembers we eat more than Moroi."

"Yeah…" I said.

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**This is the start of Dimitri knowing everyone, I swear! ^.^ I hope you like this chapter, wasn't Jazz just awesome talking back to Janine like that or was she being stupid? Humm... I can't decide. Please leave a review!**

**Oh yeah, the Italian school was mentioned in Fiery Heart, I've tried looking for the name in the book, but my eyes hurt from scanning pages before I did, so can anyone remember it? It's "Lac du" something**

**VA belongs to Richelle Mead. **


	20. Chapter 20

I got back to the house talking to Jacob, the guy I'd done rounds with, and Arthur again. He'd been taking the opportunity to ice skate when my relief guard met up with us. Arthur had been just finishing up when my shift ended so he came with us over to the staff housing quarter. Most of the chalets were empty since the ski instructors and most of the staff were only seasonal workers, but it meant that the visiting guardians could sleep over here instead of in the lodge if they wanted too. Arthur had only arrived today and was, according to Kitty, going to be sleeping in Dimitri's spare room. That way they wouldn't have to unlock and spruce up another one of the chalets. He was only here for a few days anyway.

"Ivan we're… Oh, god what is that – what's the smell?" I asked and covered my nose with my hands.

"How do you think it smells to me?" he called. "Dimka, let's just order pizza, ok? Abandon it."

"Mama would be able to salvage it," he darkly replied.

The three of us walked into the kitchen. There was vegetable peel everywhere, flour dusted the ceiling and water was spilling over the edge of the sink.

"Never mind the food, what about my kitchen?" I asked and hurried over to the clogged up sink to turn the tap off.

"Your kitchen?" Ivan asked turning away from the cooker. "I'm the one who's –"

"Never cooking again if this place isn't tidy by the time pizza arrives!" I threatened and grabbed the phone from the wall and slammed the door shut in their stunned faces. "And open a window!"

Then I grinned and laughed. There was a note folder somewhere full of useful numbers. I grabbed it and found the number for the kitchen.

"Yes! Please let me make something!" an over enthusiastic or perhaps so bored she was turning desperate chef said loudly.

"Can I have some pizzas?" I asked still sounding a little startled.

"Sure, who are they for?"

"Jasmine Cloud, er… chalet number thirty one. There's five of us. Four Dhampir, one Moroi."

"Ok, so five pizzas, all different?" she was still really happy and loud and excited.

"Errr… yeah. Whatever you like."

"Great, I'll do meat ones and some vegetable. _Please_ can I make you desert? Chocolate fudge cake with a chocolate sauce you can throw in the microwave?"

"Sure."

"Ok, and I'm going to throw some garlic bread in. Thank you _so much_," she said and disconnected, slamming the phone into the holder.

"Well that was… She must have been really bored."

The guys laughed a little and sat on the sofas.

"I would offer you guys tea or coffee, but…" I looked at the kitchen door.

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**Thanks for the reviews guys! I hope you like this chapter as much as the last one :D Please leave a review! **

**VA belongs to Richelle Mead **


	21. Chapter 21

**Sorry it's taken so long to update! As ever I'm having internet issues but I also found out ****_via the post_**** that I've not longer got a job. Yes, my boss forgot to tell me I'm no longer employed. Anyway, before I rant... I'm working on getting my own book published on Amazon kindle so when that's all up and running I'll let you know so that you can check it out of you want.**

**Anyway, I got a review asking for a sparring scene with Janine. At first I read the review I imagined a hot tub and an awkward conversation, but that would be 'spa', not 'spar'. I'm not sure I like it, but I wanted to get something out. So, this chapter with sparring is for the reviewer. Unfortunately I can't find the email in my overflowing inbox, but yeah... Hope you like it!**

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Dimitri kicked me in the stomach so hard he winded me. I fell back on the sparring mat with a groan and figured out how to breathe. For a moment it felt like I was learning to breathe for the first time. I stayed down too long apparently because Dimitri appeared above me, hair falling from the tie and worried, concentrated eyes. I waved him off and sucked in a deep breath.

"Light sparring, Dimka? What happened to that?" I asked with a grimace.

"Sorry," he said.

"I thought you learned your lesson when you concussed me. I think I hate you."

"You don't have time to hate each other," Janine Hathaway said flatly from somewhere way above me.

I turned my head and saw her standing a little way off to the side with Art. They were both in gym clothes and holding water bottles. It worried me more than it probably should have. I sat up and didn't feel quite so small.

"That was a vicious kick you took there," Janine said.

"It only comes out when he gets carried away," I said. "I should be used to it by now."

"If it happens that often you should know how to defend against it," she said flatly and walked away.

_Ouch. _

Art chuckled, pulled me up and passed me his water bottle. I took a gulp of water and passed it back.

"Why don't you both go against Janine?" he asked with a crooked smile. "See what you're really made of."

Dimitri and I looked at one another and both shrugged. We walked over there and Janine gestured Dimitri into the circle. He glanced at me for a moment and then stepped in taking on a defensive stance. They circled each other for a while each sizing the other up. I knew what Dimitri was thinking – she'd have to get in close, he would have to bend a lot to get over (or maybe under) the height difference and she'd go for him then, she was probably more agile than him (somehow) and she was lighter on her toes and, most of all, do not under any circumstances underestimate her.

Then she struck out in a fast manoeuvre, fist first followed by a foot and then another fist. He dodged them all successfully, beautifully even and struck back seeing an opening I hadn't. She backed away but just as quickly was back on the offensive making Dimka defend for a few long moments. And whilst they were fighting I remembered how nice it was to simply watch Dimitri do what he did best. Even now up against a modern legend he was calm and composed, some moves well thought out, others instinctive. He was all about clean lines and elegant grace.

The height difference was staggering, at least a foot and a half, but even so he was struggling against her. It was amazing to see. Until now I'd been the only one to give him any real pause for thought in the sparring ring. I really wanted him to win and for a moment it looked like he was gaining ground on her, but then she took him down, slamming him harder to the floor with more force than was necessary and, with just as much force, she got him in the heart with a training stake.

Dimitri cried out in pain and I dashed over, kneeling by his side, pushing Janine away. He was coughing and spluttering and – someone was tearing my hair out?

I grabbed the hand squeezing down on the pressure point and twisting the hand away. At the same time I managed to get a leg up and trip her over it. Janine tried to pull me with her but I let go of her hand and backed off, almost standing on Dimitri who was still on the floor. Ok, now I was worried about him. But before I could turn Janine launched an impressive, almost overwhelming offensive which I only just about managed to defend against without giving ground.

It was knackering. Before I knew it I didn't have much breath left to spare but I'd be damned if I let her win after she hurt Dimka. There was just no way. I was too mad to let that happen. And then I saw it, the opening I needed to slam her down on the floor, face first, hip second and it was going to hurt. For some reason I wasn't understanding all to clearly I softened it for her. As soon as the was on the floor I let go of her and went back over to Dimitri surprised at how far we'd moved away from him.

He was sat up now, but was obviously in a lot of pain. I was about to help him up and take him to see the on side doctor that I felt the cool, hard edge of a real stake being pressed to my back in the perfect position to slide up between my ribs and through my heart.

"Dead," Janine said and then let me go.

Ok, that was so _it._ I stood up faster than I could blink and grabbed her shoulder. "Would you care to tell me what that was all about?"

She looked up at me completely unfazed for a moment and then calmly said, "Not everyone in infallible."

"Well, duh! But there was no need to hurt Dimitri to prove that point!" I snapped, livid, absolutely _livid_. "And not only do you not stop there you cheat _when you knew he was hurt_ so that you could prove some point to me but in doing that I _nearly stood on him_, and you think that's ok?!"

She looked behind me and quirked an eyebrow. "Another lesson learned."

I didn't have to turn my head to see that Art was standing over Dimitri with a stake in his hand.

I growled. "I don't need to learn these lessons. And I already know Dimitri isn't indestructible."

"He got the second highest score ever," she counted oh so calmly.

"Scores don't mean much when you're faced with Strigoi," I oh so calmly said right back.

"What would you know about Strigoi?" Indignation coloured her voice.

I laughed mirthlessly. "A bunch of them attacked my dad and left him with PTSD which he's only just recovered from meaning I didn't meet him until last summer, I distracted a couple that were trying to kill my mum and they nearly killed me in the process, Dimka and I were up against one at school and it could have killed both of us even though he'd been Moroi because they're just that fast and just that strong. We didn't need these lessons. I learned them when I was fourteen, Dimitri learned them a year ago and death is not a lesson you forget."

I turned away from her, shaking and mad as hell, and got Dimitri over to see the doctor. It was a cool, clinical space the same way that all placed doctors worked in were, but there were touches of the hotel's luxury too – a large TV, a bowl of sweets, a food menu, a piano in the waiting room which was decked out in comfortable chairs as well as a few plastic ones for if you were bleeding all over the place and a feeder room.

Where the beds were (like they imagined a spat of ski accidents, or people cutting each other up and open on the rink) everything was white apart from the dividing curtains which were light blue. Dimitri lay down on a bed looking up at the ceiling.

"You probably shouldn't have argued with Janine again. I thought she was going to, how do you say it, knock your living daylights lights out," Dimitri said.

"Near enough. Either 'knock your lights out' or 'knock the living daylights out of you'. I we edging for 'living daylights'," I said perhaps talking slowly so that I could forestall the inevitable conversation.

But even back then Dimitri Belikov knew how to keep you on track, especially if you didn't want to talk about it. "It's not a good idea to keep fighting with her."

I rolled my eyes. "We're both more professional than that," I admitted knowing where he was going with this. If something happened and Janine and I needed to work together I had no doubt we'd be able to do so, mutual animosity aside. "And don't you tell me she was right 'teaching those lessons'," I made air quotes around the words. "And she most definitely did not have any business injuring you for the greater good or whatever she wants to call it." I was nearly shouting and my breath came heavy and fast to match my shaking fists which I'd bunched up in the quilt Dimitri was lying on top of.

He moved a hand to cover both of mine. "I'll be –"

"Off work for two weeks!"

"I'll be fine," he said trying to soothe me. If anything it made me feel worse.

"You're just… Whatever," I said and stood up abruptly. "I'm going home. Will you be alright?"

He just closed his eyes and waved me away.

He text me later:

_1 cracked rib. 2 weeks off. _

_Janine stopped by to apologise._

_Stop by for dinner as often as you want. _

_This is still not OK. _

_Would you have left me if we were somewhere else? _

_I don't know. _

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**Like I said I'm not sure I like this chapter, but I hope you thought it was ok. Back to normal uploads of every/every other day depending on if the computer wants to connect to the internet. Please leave a review!**

**VA belongs to Richelle Mead**


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